In 1973, a group of Jewish gay people—mostly men—gathered in New York City and created what eventually became Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. In the decades since then, the organization has burgeoned, and been a leader both within Judaism and within the LGBTQ movement. Moshe Shokeid, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, has written A Gay Synagogue in New York.