Yeshiva University said it would recognize that the school reversed the curriculum and banned the organization after a years-long legal battle ended after two months of recognition.
The school said the club, known as Hareni, violated Jewish principles and legal settlement. But the student's lawyer said it was the leader of the school, a modern Orthodox Jewish institution, which was on campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx, which violated agreements with hostile religious rhetoric.
In a letter to the community on Friday, the university repeated an argument in state court in 2022 that its undergraduate program was “fundamentally religious.”
The school says Hareni's “recent actions and statements” were formed after a legal battle with an informal club called “Pride League”, which convinced administrators that it “operated as a Pride club under a different name and thus contrary to the legal values of our Jesus, the Pentate values of our Yeshiva, and violated approved guidance and guidelines for compliance with settlement agreements.
The letter continues: “There is no such club in Jeseva.” It says: “We are still fully committed to guiding our students’ challenges in a consistent manner in Jewish religious law.”
Yeshiva's decision in March recognized that the club's decision seemed to have ended the legal dispute that has plunged a university in one of the country's most liberal cities into a national debate on whether religious freedom, civil rights, religious alliance organizations and even pious individuals can be forced to provide public accommodation to people with different perspectives.
Religious organizations and religious freedom groups are closely following the lawsuit. Although many Jewish congregations support LGBTQ rights, many orthodox leaders interpret the law as promoting traditional concepts of gender and gender.
During years of legal quarrel, Yeshiva went out of her way to deny the Pride League’s official endorsement, including a brief ban on all campus clubs. As the case works in court, it also draws the attention of state lawmakers, who criticize the university’s position and suggests that it may have damaged its ability to obtain public funds.
The official disbandment of Hareni comes at a time when the rights of LGBTQ Americans were threatened by the Trump administration, which attacked elite universities and carried out a campaign against transgender participation, especially in public life.
The club said in a statement that its members were “very disappointed with the announcement of Hareni’s cancellation” after their lawyers sent a letter to the University against “continuous display of “animation and hostility”, a day after a day at the university leadership.
Attorneys Katherine Rosenfeld and Max Selver said in the letter that the statements included college guidelines released last month saying the club does not allow social events, must not use the terms “pride flags, symbols, symbols and emojis” and must “sexual ethics” all of its printed materials.
The lawsers, who previously represented the Pride Alliance in its battle with Yeshiva, also said they were alarmed by hostile public statements from senior rabbis at the school, including a letter printed in a campus newspaper from Rabbi Hershel Schachter, who said he “emphasically rejects the ideaology, lifestyle and behaviors which the LGBTQ term representations.”
In another statement, the second-highest, Raby Meyer Twersky, said that the “LGBTQ acronym” represents “a heretic, nihilistic philosophy that advocates and celebrates all forms of sexual bias.”
“We must refuse their requests unconditionally and it will never be resolved,” Rabbi Twersky wrote.
In response to a letter from Hareni's lawyer, Yeshiva filed his own complaint against the student club, which it said has “repeated speculation and opposes Yeshiva's spiritual leadership”.
Yeshiva did not intend to legal settlement to form an official endorsement of Pride Alliance, and the administrator was shocked when the new club Hareni simply renamed Pride Alliance's social media account.
Yeshiva lawyers said posts were posted on accounts that said the Pride League “will use the official club of the official club of the club name Hareni”. The university also objected to the use of Pride flag emoji and the word “pride” in posts on these accounts, and the posts of Pride League can still be seen on them.
They said the club, before the club's co-chairs Hayley Goldberg and Schneur Friedman, seemed to have particularly angered the club and published an article in the campus newspaper, who were previously co-chairs of Pride Alliance.
In the article, students said that despite the university’s ban, they planned to hold social events and that they would not post ethical disclaimers to the club’s printed materials. Such a statement would be “shocking.”
Student leaders also said questions about the interaction between LGBTQ rights and Jewish religious law or Halacha “works, but they are not the question at hand.”
In fact, they wrote that the university, club, president and Yeshiva leaders were “not sure of individuals, heading straight or gay, trans or cis, approaching Halacha.”
They added: “Individuals themselves.”
