Temple hosts outreach service in Lynbrook

It was a lesson in love from Rabbi Victor Appell, who visited Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook on March 4.

Appell, the Union for Reform Judaism congregational specialist for marketing, outreach and new communities, spoke to more than 50 people about the most important issues facing gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers and how religious institutions can help win the fight against bigotry.

“I am speaking about my own history and the role that synagogues can play,” Appell said before the service. “Faith can make a difference in people’s lives, and communities can help save lives.”

Growing up as a gay teenager, Appell was bullied because of his sexuality. While attending a Bronx school, he was required to read The New York Times as part of a ninth-grade social studies class — a pivotal moment that changed his life, he said, helping him change from being ridiculed to being reformed. “I turned to a small advertisement each time that held a promise for my future,” he recalled.

The ad was for a special service at a gay synagogue that Appell felt would be welcoming and accepting of him. Being both Jewish and gay, he said, he was determined not to sacrifice one or the other. Attending the service in his senior year of high school, he discovered that he did not have to hide who he was from the world.

“There are happy, gay people out there, not like the sad faces you present in the media … coming out can have a positive effect on your self-image when most of society tells you that you are abnormal,” Appell said. “The synagogue tells that you are created like everyone else in God’s image.”

Once an intern at Am Echad, Appell found warmth and kindness there, he said. Spreading the message that religion can transform lives, he said that children need to know that churches and synagogues are safe places for them.