Rabbi William Gershon at the White House Hanukah party in 2015. (Photo from Facebook)
Longtime Rabbi William Gershon penned an “excruciating” letter to Congregation Shearith Israel before stepping down from his position this week, which was first published by the Dallas Morning News. The rabbi, who was named president of the Conservative Jewish Rabbinical Assembly, cited a struggle with his sexual identity in his exit from the Douglas Avenue synagogue.
“I have wrestled for many years with questions of my sexual identity but was unable to understand, accept and integrate this most personal and most intimate aspect of myself. I regret that this struggle led me to take inappropriate actions outside my marriage that caused great pain to my family,” he wrote.
Gershon was an incredibly active member of the national Jewish community, sitting on a variety of boards including the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, in addition to earning the Israel Freedom Award from Israel Bonds, which invests financially in the Jewish state. Next to his president title on on the Conservative Jewish Rabbinical Assembly it now reads: (on leave).
