AP Highlights Rabbi Kleinbaum's Retirement and Final Services at CBST

Rabbi Kleinbaum’s retirement was featured in an AP article that explored her career from her hiring in 1992 amidst the AIDS crisis through her August 2024 retirement and the celebrations associated with that milestone for Rabbi Kleinbaum and the CBST community. 

In a column titled, “After 32 years as a progressive voice for LGBTQ Jews, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum heads into retirement,” the AP writes:

“For more than three decades, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has led the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ synagogue through the myriad ups and downs of the modern gay-rights movement — through the AIDS crisis, the murder of Matthew Shepard, the historic civil-rights advances that included marriage equality, and most recently the backlash against transgender rights.

She is now stepping down from that role and shifting into retirement. The New York City synagogue that she led for 32 years — Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in midtown Manhattan — will have to grapple with its identity after being defined by its celebrity rabbi for so long.”