Pride is a Jewish Value

Last month, we marked Jewish American Heritage Month, and this month, we proudly display rainbows for Pride. All month long – and beyond – we’re vocalizing our support for the LGBTQ+ community and proclaiming “Pride is a Jewish Value.” Many of us are members or allies of both the Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities, and we stand united against hate in all its forms.

Pride is a Jewish value. These aren’t just words; they are a fundamental belief of our organization and movement. We know that every human is created b’tzelem elokim, in the image of God, and dignity, equity, and equality are core JDCA values. These principles are enshrined in JDCA’s policy platform, which includes fighting for equal rights and opposing discrimination, including homophobia and transphobia.

Today marks ten years since the horrific murder of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We will never forget this vicious attack on the LGBTQ+ community and will continue to fight for a country where marginalized communities are safe.

We stand with the transgender community in particular as it faces hatred, ridicule, dehumanization, and targeted attacks from the Trump administration. Transphobia has been cynically exploited by Republicans for political purposes, including with the goal of impacting elections. We saw this in 2024, when anti-trans commercials dominated the airwaves in the final days of the election, and more recently, with Stephen Miller’s illegal attempt to exploit transphobia to impact the 2026 midterms. These attacks by the Trump administration and Republicans are unconscionable, and we will continue to stand up for the trans community.

Pride is a Jewish value, and we are proud to declare it so. But when we posted this exact message on social media earlier this month, the response on X was like nothing we’d ever experienced. White supremacists and right-wing influencers commented on the post with vile antisemitic, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric and conspiracy theories, proclaiming “this is exactly what’s wrong with the Jewish community.”

This hate spread like wildfire on X, and soon the post had millions of views and thousands of hateful comments. It got so bad that we eventually deleted the post on X in order to remove the vulgarity, calls for violence, extremism, and threats to our organization that our post was being used to convey. This moment served as a stark reminder that this dangerous extremism is a threat to all of us, and the fight against antisemitism is intertwined with the fight against homophobia and transphobia.

Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022, its algorithm has shifted dramatically in favor of extremists. A recent study found that a few weeks of X’s algorithm can make you more right-wing, and it has a lasting impact. On the day that Elon Musk becomes the world’s first trillionaire, we call on him to use his power to reduce and mitigate the impact of the dangerous rhetoric he’s amplified on X.

We’re not backing down from our principles, and we’ll continue to declare “Pride is a Jewish value,” because it is. We encourage you to like, share, and engage with our post on Instagram and Facebook in honor of Pride because we refuse to let extremism win.

We are all created equal, we are fighting for equality, and we recognize that diversity is America’s strength. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating Pride Month with our JDCA Pride Merch and stand with the LGBTQ+ community year-round. Happy Pride.

In solidarity and Shabbat Shalom,

Halie Soifer
CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America

Sara Grostern
Deputy Communications Director, Jewish Democratic Council of America