MINNETONKA, Minn. — History is being made here in the Twin Cities metro.
This past weekend, Rabbi Aaron Weininger was installed as the first openly gay senior rabbi by a large Conservative Movement Jewish Congregation.
This was at the Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minnetonka.
KARE 11 Sunrise Anchor Jason Hackett sat down with Rabbi Weininger for his first interview after the appointment to talk about the significance of the move and the impact he's hoping to make in the community.
Jason: I want to talk about you and your upbringing. Can you talk about what got you here to this point?
Weininger: I grew up in New York in an active vibrant Jewish community right outside of the city and grew up active in youth group, going to Jewish Day School, Jewish summer camp. As I went through high school and then entered college at Washington University in St. Louis, I came out as a gay man.
Jason: When did you decide that you wanted to become a rabbi? Why did you decide that this was your calling?
Weininger: I knew by the time I was 15 years old. I'd say I felt called from even before the time I was 15. From a young age, witnessing community band together and support my family during difficult times and joyous times. Seeing the power of community be together was the beginning of that call.
In the conservative movement of Judaism, which is one of the denominations of Judaism — Big C conservative — it was not possible for openly LGBTQ people to attend rabbinical school. And so I was part of the process, with many other people, of changing the policy and being the first out gay student in my seminary.
Jason: You're the first openly gay person appointed as a senior rabbi by a large conservative Jewish congregation. What does that appointment mean to you?
Weininger: It means that the congregation is willing to see everyone and hear everyone and hold everyone in all of the ways that we arrive as human beings. And for the congregation to make that decision. To appoint an open openly gay person to that role is quite significant.
It's a big deal that as a community, we've made that affirmation that everyone can walk through the many doors of Jewish life.
Jason: Considering the fact that we live in such polarizing times here at home and around the world, how do you meet that challenge as the leader of the synagogue?
Weininger: Certainly since the attacks in Israel on October 7, we continue to notice the ways our students of all ages face Anti Semitism in schools, that adults in our congregation face Anti Semitism at work, or simply aren't comfortable articulating or struggled to articulate what it means to be Jewish. And so instilling that sense of Jewish pride, which has always been a strength of our community, continues to be more important than ever.
We have a great opportunity as a religious community to be a microcosm and to model the kind of respectful conversation that our world desperately needs and lacks. And that we, as a religious community, can choose not to settle on compromise and say, "Well, let's get to the least common denominator, and pretend we all agree."
Whatever we're doing whatever we're discussing, those are important issues. We shouldn't minimize the differences or just see compromise to say we're compromising.
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