David Benkof

David Benkof
דוד בנקוף
Born
David Ari Bianco

(1970-10-09) October 9, 1970
St. Louis, Missouri
Alma materStanford University
OccupationPolitical commentator

David Benkof (Hebrew: דוד בנקוף; born David Ari Bianco on October 9, 1970) is an American political commentator who lives in Jerusalem. He was raised in St. Louis, Missouri and then went to college at Stanford University, where he came out as gay his first year. In 1989 he served as the international president of United Synagogue Youth.[1]

Career

In 1995, Benkof founded Q Syndicate, a gay-press syndication service that provides columns, cartoons, crossword puzzles and horoscopes to about 100 gay and lesbian newspapers.[2] In 1999 he founded Press Pass Q, a monthly e-mail newsletter for gay and lesbian press professionals.[3] In 2001, he sold a majority interest in Q Syndicate to Rivendell Marketing, and served as vice president for two years before selling the rest of the company.[4] In 1997 Benkof wrote Modern Jewish History for Everyone and in 1999 Gay Essentials: Facts for Your Queer Brain. In 2002 and 2003 he wrote the column "Over the Rainbow" for Q Syndicate.[5] He also contributes to the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.[6]

In 2003, Benkof announced that for religious reasons he had stopped having sex with men.[7] He had always been a devout Jew, and said that one reason he changed was because "Gay sex is just inconsistent with traditional religious life." To reflect his change in sexual identity, and to honor his late grandfather, Julius Benkof, he changed his name to David Benkof.[4] He still identified as a gay man, criticized the Ex-gay movement,[8] and expressed his opinion that "reparative therapy doesn't work".[9]

At that time Benkof was also a strong opponent of same-sex marriage.[10] In response to arguments for gay marriages, he wrote "This reasoning is not only flawed, it insults the millions of Americans whose traditional faiths call on us to defend marriage as a central institution in society defined as a union between a man and a woman."[11] He made it clear that his objection to same-sex relationships was based in part on his personal religious beliefs, stating, "I happen to believe that God has been clear to the Jewish people that we should be pursuing opposite-sex relationships, and particularly not having intercourse between two males."[12]

For two months in 2008 Benkof was actively involved in the campaign for California Proposition 8 (2008), and to support this campaign he started a blog called Gays Defend Marriage. However, in July 2008, he broke with the campaign and closed the blog, writing that while he continued to oppose same-sex marriage he had lost respect for its organizers,[13] and accusing them of tolerating antisemitism and homophobia.[14]

In 2016 Benkof wrote on Facebook that while he continued to belong to an Orthodox synagogue he no longer believed in Orthodox theology and no longer wished to be described as celibate, "or any other bedroom status". In 2021, he wrote "I'm openly gay, I date men, and I have no problem with gay marriage – and that's been true for several years."[15]

Education

Benkof spent the 2004-2005 year at Darche Noam/Shapell's, an Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem. He then studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem during the 2005-2006 academic year.[16] From 2006 to 2008, he pursued graduate work in American Jewish history at New York University. In 2008 and 2009 he wrote a weekly column, Fabulously Observant, for The Jerusalem Post and several other Jewish newspapers, discussing "life from the perspective of an Orthodox, conservative, openly gay American Jew in the process of making aliyah".[17] He returned to Darche Noam/Shapell's from 2011 to 2014 as a teacher of Hebrew grammar.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Wall, Alexandra (March 7, 2003). "Queer Jew 'comes out' again -- as celibate, Orthodox". jewishsf.com. J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  2. ^ "Extremist Makeover". HuffPost. July 26, 2008. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
  3. ^ "THE ENDLESS EFFORT TO PASS ENDA – Gay City News". gaycitynews.com. December 11, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
  4. ^ a b Seely, Christopher (December 19, 2003). "Gay Jewish writer gives up sex with men". Southern Voice. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  5. ^ Over the Rainbow
  6. ^ Benkof, David. "David Benkof Archives". Jewish Journal. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  7. ^ Wockner, Rex (February 10, 2003). "David Bianco Would Rather be a Traditional Jew than Gay". GayToday. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  8. ^ Benkof, David (August 5, 2008). "Torah Judaism has no concept of 'ex-gay'". The Jewish Journal.
  9. ^ Benkof, David (April 2, 2014). "JONAH's 'ex-gay' therapy case is good, but JONAH isn't". The Times of Israel.
  10. ^ Benkof, David (November 26, 2003). "Beautiful and loving — but don't call it holy". jewishsf.com. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  11. ^ Benkof, David (January 18, 2004). "The Law and Religion: Religious views have a place in same-sex marriage debate". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  12. ^ Wockner, Rex (January 31, 2003). "Taking the Gay Out of Gay Press". Gay City News. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  13. ^ Benkof, David. "David Benkof's last post". gaysdefendmarriage.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
  14. ^ Benkof, David (September 8, 2008). "Right-wing nonsense". Black Hills Pioneer.
  15. ^ David Benkof (June 24, 2021). "The Broadway Maven's Weekly Blast".
  16. ^ "Institute for Marriage and Public Policy". blog.marriagedebate.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  17. ^ Benkof, David (September 3, 2008). "Fabulously Observant: Prayer isn't boring, you are". The Jerusalem Post.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.