I learned a lot about both the state of the local Jewish community and how homosexuality is viewed from Judaism’s various disciplines. While everyone’s experience in the article is different, there did seem to be an overall feeling of “live and let live” among the Jewish people in regards to the sexuality of fellow Jews, and even some of the Conservative shuls and families seem far more accepting than respective Christian denominations. Interestingly, in Israel, where you’d expect there to be the most religious scrutiny, the divisions and stigma often surrounding homosexuality here in the United States seem to be non-existant, at least in the experiences relayed to me second hand.

Anyway, if you can find a copy, it might be worth a read. I mean, I did spend a year writing it!

I was asked to write a story about a local Jewish musician. Off the top of my head, one came to mind immediately: Hal Savar, who leads the cover band Acoustic Soul. I wrote about Savar before, for the Las Vegas Weekly, but this would be a much longer feature, and I actually had a lot of material unused from my first interview with Savar. He and I met up again at a Starbucks to talk more specifically about his Jewish upbringing, which I didn’t expect played into his music so much, but it does! Kinda interesting. You should read the story.

DAVID is available for free at a bunch of places in Vegas, including Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc. There’s no online version of the stories, but I did do a really poor scan of my story if you’re interested. Click below!