Are Jewish Colleges Illegal in New York City?

Are Jewish colleges illegal in New York City? One New York court’s ruling threatens to make that the law. The highest court in the state has refused to step in. On Monday, attorneys for Yeshiva University filed for emergency relief from the United States Supreme Court. The Court could rule any day on the application in Yeshiva University v. YU Pride Alliance. If it goes beyond ordering a temporary stay of the court order and takes the case to decide its merits, it could reach yet another momentous decision on religious liberty in the United States.

At issue, as has so often been the case since 2015’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, is whether religious believers will be forced to change the millennia-old tenets of their faith in order to accommodate 21st-century LBGTQIA+ ideology. Specifically, the YU Pride Alliance, a gay group, filed a lawsuit against Yeshiva University to be recognized as an official campus group for the first time. The university, after consulting with its senior rabbis, concluded that extending formal approval to a gay group would be inconsistent with its religious beliefs.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Are Jewish colleges illegal in New York City? One New York court’s ruling threatens to make that the law. The highest court in the state has refused to step in. On Monday, attorneys for Yeshiva University filed for emergency relief from the United States Supreme Court. The Court could rule any day on the application in Yeshiva University v. YU Pride Alliance. If it goes beyond ordering a temporary stay of the court order and takes the case to decide its merits, it could reach yet another momentous decision on religious liberty in the United States.

At issue, as has so often been the case since 2015’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, is whether religious believers will be forced to change the millennia-old tenets of their faith in order to accommodate 21st-century LBGTQIA+ ideology. Specifically, the YU Pride Alliance, a gay group, filed a lawsuit against Yeshiva University to be recognized as an official campus group for the first time. The university, after consulting with its senior rabbis, concluded that extending formal approval to a gay group would be inconsistent with its religious beliefs.