The Awareness Center, Inc. (International Jewish Coaltion Against Sexual Assault): Case of Arthur Abba Goldberg of JONAH

Case of Arthur Abba Goldberg

(AKA: Abba Goldberg, Arthur Goldberg)

JONAH - Brooklyn, NY
Former Executive Vice President, Matthews & Wright

A civil suit has been filed against Abba Goldberg. This is a case in which serious allegations have been made against Arthur Goldberg of professional sexual misconduct and also of an individual presenting himself as a counselor to provide guidance to at least two young men.

It's important to know that Arthur A. Goldberg is a convicted felon. He was found guilty in 1989 of numerous felonies in multiple jurisdictions. The charges ranged from federal mail and wire fraud to conspiracy counts as a result of a bogus bond writing scheme.

At the time, Goldberg was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment in the Central District of California, which he served concurrently with a an Illinois sentence imposed at the same time. It was followed by five years of supervised probation and a $100,000 fine, eventually paid on November 24, 1999.

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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.

Table of Contents

Background information

1991

Scandal Yields Windfall for an Impoverished City (02/04/1991)

2010

National Anti Gay Leader is a convicted felon, con man (02/15/2010)

2012

'Gay cure' therapists, 'cured' student sue California over new law
(10/04/2012)
Gay men sue counselors who promised to make them straight (11/27/2012)
Gay Men, Moms Sue NJ Jewish Gay Conversion Therapists (11/27/2012)
Jersey City, NJ - Gay Conversion Therapy Group Targeting Orthodox Community Being Sued (11/27/2012)
JONAH Lawsuit
Gay Men Sue Over Conversion Therapy (11/27/2012)
Gay ‘Conversion Therapy’ Faces Test in Courts (11/27/2012)
Gay men sue counselors who promised to make them straight (11/27/2012)
New Jersey conversion therapist vows to keep going in the face of lawsuit (11/29/2012)
Rep. Speier introduces resolution condemning ‘conversion’ therapy (11/28/2012)
Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) denounces reparative therapy (11/29/2012)
Conversion therapist: Lawsuit won't stop us (11/29/2012)
Arthur Goldberg Compares his Ex-Gay Therapy Business to Weight Watchers (11/30/2012)
Battle Over 'Gay Therapy' Taken to Court (11/30/2012)
A more modern view of homosexuality (12/05/2012)
Jewish Group Accused of ‘Ex Gay’ Lies (12/05/2012)
Bill Would Block Attempts to Change Children's Sexual Orientation (12/12/2012)
JONAH Exploits Lonely Old Gay Man In New Propaganda Video Will Orthodox Throw JONAH Overboard? (12/15/2012)
SPLC lawsuit against reparative therapy group 'the height of intolerance': Lawyer (12/20/2012)

2013

Former APA president: I know of ‘hundreds’ of homosexuals who changed their orientation (06/06/2013)
Gay 'conversion' treatment faces novel court challenges (07/18/2013)

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Background information:
Ben Unger and Chaim Levin grew up in Orthodox Jewish homes in Brooklyn. They lived in traditional, socially conservative homes and tried to live up to the expectations of their faith and families.

They were gay, however, and were told they had to choose between being gay and Jewish - as if this were truly possible.

In a desperate search for "help", Ben and Chaim found the "ex-gay" organization Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH). This was the discredited organization founded by Wall Street con artist Arthur Abba Goldberg, who went to prison for massive bond fraud.

Goldberg promised to "cure" both men of their homosexuality and make them straight. He recommended that Ben and Chaim have therapy sessions with Alan Downing, a "life coach" who often conducted his practice out of JONAH's headquarters. Downing is also a senior trainer for the controversial "ex-gay" outdoor retreat, Journey Into Manhood, which is run by the organization, People Can Change.

While Ben and Chaim were in "therapy", Downing admitted that he was still attracted to men. In time, the sessions devolved into a "psychological striptease", where the men were asked to strip completely named and touch themselves.

Both Ben and Chaim say they were harmed by the therapy and consider Downing's actions highly unprofessional, unethical and inappropriate.

Unfortunately, groups like JONAH and People Can Change often place vulnerable people in the hands of unqualified, unhealthy "life coaches" and counselors who are struggling to accept their own repressed sexual orientation. This creates disastrous situations where unhealthy, predatory behavior can occur.

Fortunately, Ben and Chaim have come to accept themselves and now live as out, proud openly gay men. They warn Jewish LGBT youth to avoid fraudulent scams like JONAH and accept themselves.

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Scandal Yields Windfall for an Impoverished City

The New York Times - Published: February 04, 1991

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill., Feb. 3 — Frustrated by the roller coaster of high hopes and dashed dreams that this nearly bankrupt city has been riding for years, a Federal district judge has found a way to turn a financial scandal into a windfall for its residents.

The judge, William D. Stiehl, on Thursday sentenced the Wall Street investment firm of Matthews & Wright Inc. to pay $7 million as community service in exchange for a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy and fraud for its role in a $223 million municipal bond issue for a river port that was never built.

United States Attorney Frederick Hess, whose office prosecuted the case, said it was the first time a corporation has been sentenced to perform community service through payment.

Judge Stiehl also established the East St. Louis Community Fund to oversee the spending of the money for the benefit of East St. Louis. The court order calls for the money to go for projects that include education, health care and housing. First $1 Million Surrendered

A representative of Matthews & Wright gave the court a check for $1 million. The firm must outline to the judge within 30 days a plan for an annuity that would provide $1 million a year through 1997. It was also fined $1 million.

Arthur Abba Goldberg

Arthur Abba Goldberg, the former executive vice president for Matthews & Wright who arranged the bond transaction, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and fraud.

David Aufhauser, a Washington lawyer representing Matthews & Wright, said the sentence offered his client solace and even a little pride at being able to do something constructive with the $7 million.

Judge Stiehl formed his plan for overseeing the fund after weeks of research and consultation with not-for-profit foundation professionals. Bruce Reppert, the assistant United States attorney who negotiated the plea agreement, volunteered to serve as counsel to the fund without charge. Six-Member Board for Fund

Judge Stiehl appointed a six-member bipartisan, biracial board for the fund. The $1 million was deposited in the Union Bank of Illinois here, which will act as the fund's trustee. Any project costing more than $50,000 must be approved by the court.

After the judge consulted the Ford Foundation, that organization and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation offered to provide a $40,000 grant to the National Economic Development and Law Center in Berkeley, Calif. The center will use the money to train the fund's board and help it plan.

"East St. Louis has really become known around the country as a symbol of hopelessness and despair and absence of leadership," said Robert Curvin, director of the Urban Poverty Program for the Ford Foundation. 'No Politics or Politicians'

Judge Stiehl bypassed the troubled municipal government in setting up the fund. "There will be no politics or politicians involved with this fund," Judge Stiehl said.

Mayor Carl E. Officer had argued in a Jan. 17 letter to Judge Stiehl that the money should be paid directly to the city. He said that the city was the victim of the fraud and that "the city, not a trust fund, is the entity responsible and accountable for providing services to citizens."

Eric Vickers, a St. Louis lawyer who acts as corporate counsel for East St. Louis, said racism was behind the decision to create the fund. Mr. Vickers and Mr. Officer are black, as are most of the residents of East St. Louis. The judge and the United States Attorneys involved with the case are white.

But Johnny Scott, president of the East St. Louis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, disagreed with Mr. Vickers. "I see nothing wrong with the concept," he said after the sentencing. "In fact, I applaud it."

Mr. Vickers also said Mayor Officer is under investigation in the bond fraud. Mr. Reppert confirmed that the investigation was continuing, but he declined to confirm or deny that the Mayor was a target.

Judge Stiehl told a packed courtroom on Thursday: "It is important that this fund not be another pie-in-the-sky scheme. It is imperative that their hopes and dreams not be raised, only to be dashed to the ground again, as they were in this case." Scheme Involving the Bond

The scheme to which Judge Stiehl referred was a $223 million bond issue underwritten by Matthews & Wright in 1985 to finance a huge river port that prosecutors said the conspirators in the fraud had no intention of building. The project was billed by city officials as one that would attract industry.

East St. Louis, where 43 percent of the population lives below the national poverty level of about $12,675 a year for a family of four, has been running at a deficit. The city is now about $50 million in debt, and the Chamber of Commerce says that nearly half of its 40,000 residents are unemployed.

What happened in the bond deal, the prosecutors contended, was that Mr. Goldberg used a bogus check drawn on a credit union to guarantee the closing of the bond issue in 1985 before an anticipated unfavorable change in the tax law. At the same time, Matthews & Wright arranged a sham sale of the bonds to a bank on the Pacific island of Saipan, the prosecutors said. The bonds were in fact sold in 1986, the prosecutors said.

Neither the bondholders nor East St. Louis lost money. The Government said Matthews & Wright made money in fees from sale of the bonds and on returns from investment of the money.

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Gay cure' therapists, 'cured' student sue California over new law

By Mark Morgenstein

CNN - October 4, 2012

(CNN) -- Two therapists who try to turn gay people straight, along with a student who says he was successfully converted to heterosexuality, are suing nearly two dozen California state officials, including Gov. Jerry Brown, saying a new state law infringes on their civil rights.

Alleged Sex Offender - Arthur Abba Goldberg of JONAH

The plaintiffs' legal team will file a motion sometime this month seeking an injunction before the law goes into effect, attorney Matt McReynolds told CNN on Thursday.

The legislation known as Senate Bill 1172 -- which the state Senate passed in May, Brown signed into law this weekend, and will take effect January 1 -- prohibits attempts to change the sexual orientation of patients under age 18.

"We have not seen the state of California go this far before in trying to restrict speech," McReynolds said.

The non-profit Pacific Justice Institute, whom McReynolds works for, filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court on behalf of family therapist Donald Welch, psychiatrist Dr. Anthony Duk, and Aaron Bitzer, who is studying to become a therapist, and who court papers say "seeks to share his personal experiences with future patients as a mental health professional."

The institute describes itself as a "legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties."

The plaintiffs say they're seeking a judgment finding the new law unconstitutional, injunctions against the law's enforcement, and attorney's fees, according to the legal complaint.

Among other concerns, the complaint details arguments that SB 1172 violates Californians' rights to privacy, freedom of religion, and due process.

"Certainly, the religious freedom aspect is very strong in this case," McReynolds said.

The American Psychiatric Association -- which is the world's largest of its kind, with more than 36,000 members -- has determined that sexual orientation change efforts, as the complaint calls the controversial therapy, pose a great risk, including increasing the likelihood or severity of depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior for those undergoing therapy. Therapists' alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already felt by patients, the association says.

"This bill bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide," Brown recently tweeted. "These practices have no basis in science or medicine."

Earlier this year, psychiatrist Robert L. Spitzer apologized for his 2003 study of reparative therapy in which he suggested that the practice could help gays and lesbians become straight. He said the study was deeply flawed.

"I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy," Spitzer said in a letter to the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior. "I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some 'highly motivated' individuals."

But according to the complaint, when Bitzer underwent "therapy described in the statute as" sexual orientation change efforts and reparative therapy, he "found it quite helpful in achieving his goals." Bitzer had "experienced same-sex attractions. ... However, he never believed the simplistic message of the Gay Community, which states that 'we are born this way and should just live accordingly,'" the complaint says.

The case revolves around a legal issue, not a moral one, according to McReynolds.

"It's not a debate in court about whether reparative therapy is a good thing, or how well it works, so much as it is a debate of the role of the government dictating to professionals, patients, and religious institutions what their options are going to be in that area," he said.

David Pickup, a spokesman for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, told CNN on Monday his group would file its own lawsuit against the new statute.

"We do competent therapy, therapy that truly works," said Pickup, who said he underwent such therapy and now administers it to others.

A summons filed on Wednesday requires that each of the defendants respond to the Pacific Justice Institute with an answer to the complaint within 21 days after receiving the paperwork. Beyond Brown, the defendants include state officials Anna Caballero and Denise Brown, as well as the members of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and the Medical Board of California.

The first scheduled court hearing in the case is a pretrial scheduling conference on January 22, according to court papers. However, McReynolds said he expects the court will respond to a motion for a preliminary injunction by setting a hearing date later this year, prior to the January 1 implementation of the new law.

CNN's Josh Levs contributed to this story

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National Anti Gay Leader is a convicted felon, con man

South Florida Gay News (SFGN) - February 15, 2011

A joint investigation by the organization Truth Wins Out and the SouthFloridaGayNews.com has revealed that the spokesperson for a New Jersey based national religious group seeking to ‘cure’ homosexuals is a convicted felon who has been hiding his past.

The leader of JONAH, Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, Arthur Abba Goldberg, is now also serving as President of his Jersey City temple. He was sent to federal prison 20 years ago for a conspiracy to defraud the United States of America.

Additionally, Goldberg is presently the Executive Secretary of NARTH- the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. The group hopes to heal “unwanted homosexuality” through “therapeutic care.”

One more group he supervises is PATH- Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality- a coalition of religious, ministerial, and ex-gay groups promoting “non-gay alternatives to homosexual lifestyles.” He is their President.

Goldberg, who reinvented himself in 2000 as the founder of JONAH, was found guilty in 1989 of numerous felonies in multiple jurisdictions. The charges ranged from federal mail and wire fraud to conspiracy counts as a result of a bogus bond writing scheme.

Goldberg was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment in the Central District of California, which he served concurrently with a an Illinois sentence imposed at the same time. It was followed by five years of supervised probation and a $100,000 fine, eventually paid on November 24, 1999.

K. William O’Connor, the U.S. attorney who put him away, said at his sentencing that Goldberg was “a man who habitually took advantage of people who were economically dependent upon him; that he did not hesitate to lie or cheat or cover up to achieve his criminal aim. His greed has cause incalculable harm...”

Goldberg’s arrest and conviction rocked Wall Street when it went down two decades ago. A purported whiz kid and investment guru, he had been often referred to on the Street as “Abba Dabba Do” and “Abba Cadabra.”

Those names and that past were all secreted when Goldberg founded JONAH after getting out of prison. Abandoning the conspicuously identifiable middle name of ‘Abba’, Goldberg authored a book for Red Heifer Press under the name of ‘Arthur Goldberg.’

Titled “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change,” Goldberg re-created himself as an author and spiritual leader, purporting to help individuals struggling with their sexual identity, telling gays “you can change.” He certainly did.

“We have long considered Arthur Goldberg a con-artist, but our investigation shows he is also an ex-con,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.

“His diabolical past mirrors his dishonest present-day work with JONAH. Whether it was shady deals on Wall Street or shading the truth on gay issues, Goldberg is someone who lacks credibility and can’t be trusted,” said Besen.

“The Torah is the Book of Truth,” Besen concluded, “and Goldberg has now delivered us a book of lies.”

Born in 1940, Arthur Abba Goldberg identified himself his entire life by using all three of his names, at least until he got out of prison and started JONAH.

The TWO and SFGN investigation into his past revealed that when he authored articles for the American University Eagle in 1961 as an undergraduate, his byline was ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg.’

When he received his bachelor’s degree from American University in 1962 and his law degree in 1965 from Cornell University, the diplomas were given to ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg.’

When he authored land use articles for the Urban Law Journal in the early 1970’s as a young lawyer it was under the name of ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg.’

It was also under the name ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ that he was admitted to the New Jersey and Connecticut Bar Associations, and it was under that name he served as the executive vice president directing Matthews & Wright, Inc., a New York underwriting firm, in which he was a major stockholder.

It was in the capacity as shareholder and vice president that Goldberg orchestrated a scheme of selling $2 billion in fraudulent municipal bonds for communities ranging from the impoverished city of East St. Louis to Chester, Pennsylvania, to the West Pacific U.S. territory of Guam.

The stories of his criminal acts were methodically detailed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a paper based near the Chester community scammed severely by the fraud.

It was under the name of ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ that a United States grand jury on Guam indicted him in late 1987 on 52 counts of bribery, fraud, and conspiracy.

On September 26, 1989, ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to three counts of mail fraud. He was sentenced to 18 months as part of a plea bargain.

The trial had actually been moved to California because so many residents of Guam had been financially harmed by the bogus investment scheme it was thought a fair trial in that venue was impossible.

Goldberg and others also indicted at Matthews & Wright had knowingly conspired together to enter into a fraudulent scheme to sell fake bond issues but take commissions on them anyway. They arranged to bribe officials, deceive investors, and issue bogus checks to non existent parties.

In exchange for underwriting $300 million in bogus deals, Goldberg and his investment firm, Matthews & Wright, received a fee of $10.5 million. They created the impression these bonds would be used to help construct desperately needed single family housing in Guam and elsewhere.

Separately, Goldberg also pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in another falsified bond-writing scheme. In that matter, Goldberg participated in a conspiracy to ensure that the bonds were deemed prematurely to take advantage of a favorable tax law relating to transactions.

The 900 page presentence report prepared by prosecutors prior to his sentencing was scathing. It indicated that Goldberg’s conduct was “knowingly and willfully dishonest and fraudulent.”

K. William O’Connor described Goldberg as having engineered “a conspiratorial fraud of spectacular scope,” which purposefully duped “unsophisticated Pacific Islanders.” One witness against Goldberg said he treated the citizens of Guam as if “they were cannibals.”

O’Connor said that Goldberg’s deceitfulness crippled Guam’s economy, crushed investors, undermined public confidence in the bond industry, and cost the U.S. Treasury millions in lost taxes.

U.S. District Judge Jesse W. Curtis, Jr. then sentenced ‘Arthur Abba Goldberg’ to 18 months in prison, allowing both the Illinois and California sentences to run together. He imposed fines and restitution totaling $400,000, an amount later reduced by an appellate court.

In a separate civil proceeding, the Disciplinary Review Board of the New Jersey State Bar Association recommended taking away his law license. They found “Goldberg’s criminal convictions clearly and convincingly demonstrated his participation in activities that reflected adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness, and fitness as a lawyer.”

The New Jersey Supreme Court then disbarred Goldberg on November 9, 1995, citing his criminal convictions and his “reckless indifference to a conspiracy of considerable magnitude.”

New Jersey’s highest court even noted that “We are aware of respondent’s active involvement in community service and his efforts to resettle numerous immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.” But, they concluded, “Goldberg’s conscious participation in the illegal activities leading to his criminal convictions outweighs these mitigating factors.”

In his capacity as the Director of JONAH, Goldberg formed and serves as a director of a tax exempt 501(c)(3) charitable corporation, whose website promises that it is “offering hope, compassion, direction and vitally needed information to gay strugglers, their families, friends, and surrounding community.” He formed the group using the name Arthur Goldberg, sans Abba, one month after getting his federal supervision of five years’ probation concluded.

In a 2001 interview not long after he began his religious crusade, Goldberg told the Herald News in Paterson, New Jersey, that homosexuality is the result of “psychological trauma.’ And that “six months to three years of weekly therapy and prayer can cure it.” He did not say anything about whether 18 months in a federal prison might also help.

Today, on the NARTH website, despite his conviction and disbarment, Goldberg proudly holds himself out as a ‘doctor of jurisprudence,’ displaying the title of ‘J.D.’ adjacent to his listing.

NARTH is one of the country’s most vocal critics of the American Psychological Association’s position paper concluding that homosexuality is normal, not aberrational. NARTH advocates the doctrine that homosexuality is a ‘developmental disorder’ and a ‘treatable condition.’

The ‘Jewish State’ is a central New Jersey newsweekly that Goldberg gave an interview to in 2007. He identified himself as a former deputy attorney general and Connecticut law professor, telling the reporter that “gays have been led astray in terms of your authenticity to yourself.” Meanwhile, he failed to disclose his criminal past.

“People are not born gay; there’s no such thing as a gay gene,” he added, complimenting that remark with the statement all gays “can readapt” from “their gender deficiency.” He then said homosexual children should be treated the same way as “if a child was addicted to drugs or alcohol.”

Goldberg is presently living conspicuously as the President of Congregation Mount Sinai in Jersey City. The temple offers itself out as a “welcoming environment for all people to express, deepen and rediscover their Jewish heritage.”

Last year, as a guest in the audience at the end of a Montel Williams show discussing ex-gays, he shouted from the audience at the host, interrupting the show, to say gays needed help. You can see it on You Tube.

“I’ve always been one to try to help the underdog,” he said.

But that is not what Judge Curtis concluded at Goldberg’s sentencing on September 26, 1989.

“I find,” the court stated, “that, Arthur Abba Goldberg, you have openly conspired against the United States by knowingly and recklessly engaging indifferently in a series of dishonest acts of considerable magnitude.”

JONAH’s website brags that it teaches that ‘homosexual strugglers can journey away from homosexuality with psychological and spiritual help, peer support, and personal empowerment.’

In 2007, JONAH established a separate division, The Jonah Institute for Gender Affirmation, to provide research and clinical strategies for “growth out of homosexuality.”

Maybe Arthur Abba Goldberg should have started a peer group for “growth out of felonies.” His days of failing to own up to his are over.

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Gay men sue counselors who promised to make them straight

By Alan Duke

CNN - November 27, 2012

Therapy claims to change homosexuals

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Therapy put gay teens at risk of "depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior," suit says
JONAH center claims to help people "struggling with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions"
Lawsuit contends therapists made false promises to turn gay teens straight
Lawyer: "This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable"

(CNN) -- Before Sheldon Bruck told his orthodox Jewish parents he was gay, the teenager looked for a way out of homosexuality.

His search led him to JONAH -- Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing -- which claimed on its website to help people "struggling with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions."

JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg promised Bruck, then 17, that "JONAH could help him change his orientation from gay to straight," according to a consumer fraud lawsuit filed Tuesday against JONAH, Goldberg and a JONAH counselor.

"This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law," said Samuel Wolfe, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The defendants did not respond to CNN calls and e-mails for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Hudson County, New Jersey, Superior Court. A page on the organization's website touts success stories from the program with letters from past participants and their family members.

Bruck and three male plaintiffs contend they were defrauded by JONAH's claim that "being gay is a mental disorder" that could be reversed by conversion therapy -- "a position rejected by the American Psychiatric Association four decades ago," the lawsuit said.

The therapy put them at risk of "depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior," while giving them no benefits, the suit said.

Jo Bruck, Sheldon's mother, and Bella Levin, the mother of plaintiff Chaim Levin, are also plaintiffs because they paid for their sons' conversion therapy and the counseling the suit said they needed to recover from it.

The conversion therapy techniques included having them strip naked in group sessions, cuddling and intimate holding of others of the same-sex, violently beating an effigy of their mothers with a tennis racket, visiting bath houses "in order to be nude with father figures," and being "subjected to ridicule as 'faggots' and 'homos' in mock locker room scenarios," the suit said.

"As long as you put in the effort, you're going to change," Goldberg told Bruck in the summer of 2009, the lawsuit said.

JONAH counselor Thaddeus Heffner blamed Bruck's gay orientation "on Bruck for not working hard enough to change, on his father for being too distant, and on his mother for being too close to him," the suit said.

Bruck quit after five sessions, delivered through an online video link, because he "experienced deepening depression and anxiety leading to suicidal ideation and feelings of hopelessness about his life," the suit said.

Heffner angrily warned Bruck that he was "making a big mistake" and "throwing (his) life away" by "giving into (his) desires" and that he would "never lead a happy life," but would "lead a life of unhappiness in that unhealthy lifestyle," the suit said.

Chaim Levin, also an orthodox Jew, was about to turn 17 in 2007 when he talked to his parents about his sexual orientation and sexual abuse when he was younger. A rabbi in his Brooklyn, New York, community suggested to his parents that they enroll him in JONAH's program.

"You can change if you just try hard enough," the suit said Goldberg told him. "You just need to work really hard, we are experts at this. We have helped so many people."

Levin attended weekly sessions for 18 months at JONAH's Jersey City, New Jersey, headquarters conducted by Alan Downing, an unlicensed JONAH counselor who calls himself a "life coach," the suit said. Downing is named as a defendant in the case.

The lawsuit described what happened in one of those sessions in October 2008 with Levin, who was 18 at the time.

"Downing initiated a discussion about Levin's body and instructed Levin to stand in front of a full-length mirror and hold a staff," the suit said. "Downing directed Levin to say one negative thing about himself, remove an article of clothing, then repeat the process. Although Levin protested and expressed discomfort, at Downing's insistence, Levin submitted and continued until he was fully naked. Downing then instructed Levin to touch his penis and then his buttocks. Levin, unsure what to do but trusting in and relying on Downing, followed the instructions, upon which Downing said 'good' and the session ended."

Michael Ferguson

Two other plaintiffs -- Benjamin Unger and Michael Ferguson -- described similar incidents in the suit.

"On one occasion, Downing instructed Unger to beat an effigy of his mother with a tennis racket, as though killing her, and encouraged Unger to scream at his mother while beating her effigy," the suit said.

"Conversion therapy was, in Unger's experience, 'psychological abuse,'" it said. "By the time he terminated sessions with JONAH, he was deeply depressed and had commenced taking antidepressant medications."

Downing "picked apart every human emotion and childhood disappointment" of Unger, to present them as treatable origins of Unger's orientation, the suit said.

Unger's ability to have physical and emotional relationships with men was impaired and he was unable to work for a year, the suit said.

Bruck, Levin, Unger and Ferguson are "adjusting well" four years after their last conversion therapy treatments, according to Wolfe. "They have had time to get on with their lives," he said.

Their lawsuit should put all conversion therapists on notice that they can be held accountable, Wolfe said.

"We really want to bring this lawsuit to bring attention to this practice that takes place in many parts of the country, praying on vulnerable young people," Wolfe said.

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Gay Men, Moms Sue NJ Jewish Gay Conversion Therapists

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES

ABC News - Nov. 27, 2012

Chaim Levin, one of the men filing a law suit

Four gay men and two of their mothers filed a lawsuit today against a New Jersey conversion therapy group that claims to rid men of same-sex attractions and turn them straight.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of New Jersey Hudson County, alleges that methods used by the Jersey City-based Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) do not work and constitute fraud under the state's consumer protection laws.

Arthur Goldberg, JONAH's co-director, and Alan Downing, a "life coach" who provides therapy sessions, were also named in the suit.

The plaintiffs include Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger, Sheldon Bruck and Chaim Levin, all of whom used the services of JONAH when they were in their teens or young 20s.

Two of the men's mothers, Jo Bruck and Bella Levin, who paid for therapy sessions that could cost up to $10,000 a year, were also plaintiffs.

One of the plaintiffs alleges that therapy sessions that involved a virtual "strip tease" in front of an older male counselor, as well as reliving abuse and homophobia were "humiliating."

They are seeking declaratory, injunctive and an undisclosed amount of monetary relief, as well as court costs, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs have received legal help from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which claims in the lawsuit that conversion therapy is a dangerous practice that has been "discredited or highly criticized" by every major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional organization.

Three of the young plaintiffs are from an ultra orthodox Jewish background; Ferguson came from a Mormon background and met Downing at a "Journey Into Manhood" retreat, according to the lawsuit.

JONAH appears to cater to orthodox Jews, but its methods "do not have a strong religious aspect," according to SPLC lawyer Sam Wolfe.

The lawsuit alleges that some of the methods used included: telling boys to beat a pillow, the "effigy of the client's mother," with a tennis racket; encouraging "cuddling" between younger clients and older male counselors; and even instructing attendees to remove their clothing and hold their penis in front of Downing.

Attendees were also subjected to ridicule as "faggots" and "homos" in mock locker room and gym class role playing, according to the lawsuit.

"It's definitely cruel and unusual and doesn't work," said Wolfe. "They are peddling bogus techniques that have no foundation in science and are basically ridiculous and even harmful."

Wolfe paraphrased JONAH's message as: "All you have to do is put in the work to overcome your sexual attractions. If you follow our program your true orientation emerges and will turn you into a straight person."

"Often if what the conversion therapist tells them doesn't work, it's their fault," Wolfe added.

In 2008, when the plaintiffs were seeking help from JONAH, the cost of an individual therapy session was $100 and for a group session, $60. JONAH also "strongly pushed" attending weekend retreats that could cost as much as $700, said Wolfe.

Arthur Goldberg said he "knows nothing about the lawsuit," which was filed this morning, and referred ABCNews.com to JONAH's website.

"We have a lot of people who were a success and were healed," he said of JONAH's 14 years in service. "Hundreds of the clients we serve are satisfied ... Our therapy is very conventional."

When asked about the group's practices, he said, "I can't tell you about the methodology." Goldberg admitted he had "no background specifically in counseling."

"I am the administrator," he said. "I used to teach family law."

When asked about instructing boys to take off their clothes, he said, "I know nothing about that."

Goldberg also said he had "no idea" how to reach Downing because he was an "independent contractor."

According to JONAH's mission statement on its website, the nonprofit group is "dedicated to educating the world-wide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions."

"Through psychological and spiritual counseling, peer support, and self-empowerment, JONAH seeks to reunify families, to heal the wounds surrounding homosexuality, and to provide hope," the statement reads.

JONAH's Goldberg, who runs the business side of the nonprofit, says on the website that "change from homosexual to heterosexual is possible … homosexuality is a learned behavior which can be unlearned, and that healing is a lifelong process."

According to the lawsuit, JONAH cites the "scientific" work of Joseph Nicolosi, one of the primary proponents of conversion therapy and Richard A. Cohen, who was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for "multiple ethical violations."

Nicolosi's methodology is based on the belief that a weak father-son relationship and a dominating mother contribute to homosexuality. He advocates "rough and tumble games," as well as father-son showers, according to the lawsuit.

Cohen uses a technique called "bioenergetics" that includes having male patients beat a pillow, which represents their mother, as a way of stopping same-sex attraction, according to the lawsuit.

Conversion therapists also cite child abuse and bullying as a "primary cause" of homosexuality, according to the lawsuit.

_________________________________________________________________

Jersey City, NJ - Gay Conversion Therapy Group Targeting Orthodox Community Being Sued

Associated Press - November 27, 2012

Vos Iz Neias Blog

Jersey City, NJ - Four gay men accused a New Jersey organization of fraud Tuesday for selling “conversion therapy” with false promises to make them straight.

Chaim Levin, left, and Michael Ferguson, right, with his partner Seth Anderson, listen to a a news conference, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. Levin, of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. NY, and Ferguson, of Salt Lake City, are two of four gay men accusing a New Jersey organization of selling "conversion therapy" services promising to make them straight. Instead, they told the news conference that they were subjected to humiliations, including having to strip naked, or taking a baseball bat to effigies of their mothers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

They said during a Manhattan news conference that they were subjected to humiliations that included stripping naked and taking a baseball bat to effigies of their mothers.

The four attended sessions at the Jersey City, N.J.-based Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing, or JONAH. The nonprofit advertises in Jewish publications and claims to rid men of same-sex attractions.

Three of the men are Jewish — Chaim Levin, Benjamin Unger, and Sheldon Bruck. The fourth, Michael Ferguson, is a Mormon now living in Salt Lake City who was a college student in New York when he signed up for the services.

The men say in a lawsuit that the methods do not work and should not be marketed under New Jersey’s consumer protection laws. They say the suit was filed Tuesday in New Jersey, but officials there could not confirm receiving it.

The men say in the suit that JONAH’s practices included telling them “that gay sexual orientation is a mental disorder and gay people must change to straight in order to lead satisfying and happy lives” and “that when conversion therapy does not produce the promised results, the clients themselves are to blame for not sufficiently investing in and surrendering to Defendants’ services.”

JONAH did not return calls requesting comment.

The group’s mission statement on its website says JONAH is “dedicated to educating the world-wide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions.”

Its claim that being gay is a mental disorder that can be reversed has been rejected by the American Psychiatric Association.

Speaking for the men at Tuesday’s news conference were attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala.-based civil rights organization.

“JONAH profits off of shameful and dangerous attempts to fix something that isn’t broken,” said Christine P. Sun, the center’s deputy legal director. “Despite the consensus of mainstream professional organizations that conversion therapy doesn’t work, this racket continues to scam vulnerable gay men and lesbians out of thousands of dollars and inflicts significant harm on them.”

California has taken action against providers of conversion therapy.

Last month, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that prohibits licensed mental health professionals from using so-called reparative or conversion therapies with clients under age 18. Brown called the therapies “quackery” that “have no basis in science or medicine.”

Two New Jersey lawmakers are drafting similar legislation.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gay Men Sue Over Conversion Therapy

By Alan Duke

CNN - November 27, 2012

**WARNING: The details in the following story are graphic and may be considered disturbing by some readers.

(CNN) — Before Sheldon Bruck told his orthodox Jewish parents he was gay, the teenager looked for a way out of homosexuality.

His search led him to JONAH — Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing — which claimed on its website to help people “struggling with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions.”

JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg promised Bruck, then 17, that “JONAH could help him change his orientation from gay to straight,” according to a consumer fraud lawsuit filed Tuesday against JONAH, Goldberg and a JONAH counselor.

“This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law,” said Samuel Wolfe, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The defendants did not respond to CNN calls and e-mails for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Hudson County, New Jersey, Superior Court. A page on the organization’s website touts success stories from the program with letters from past participants and their family members.

Bruck and three male plaintiffs contend they were defrauded by JONAH’s claim that “being gay is a mental disorder” that could be reversed by conversion therapy — “a position rejected by the American Psychiatric Association four decades ago,” the lawsuit said.

The therapy put them at risk of “depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior,” while giving them no benefits, the suit said.

Jo Bruck, Sheldon’s mother, and Bella Levin, the mother of plaintiff Chaim Levin, are also plaintiffs because they paid for their sons’ conversion therapy and the counseling the suit said they needed to recover from it.

The conversion therapy techniques included having them strip naked in group sessions, cuddling and intimate holding of others of the same-sex, violently beating an effigy of their mothers with a tennis racket, visiting bath houses “in order to be nude with father figures,” and being “subjected to ridicule as ‘faggots’ and ‘homos’ in mock locker room scenarios,” the suit said.

“As long as you put in the effort, you’re going to change,” Goldberg told Bruck in the summer of 2009, the lawsuit said.

JONAH counselor Thaddeus Heffner blamed Bruck’s gay orientation “on Bruck for not working hard enough to change, on his father for being too distant, and on his mother for being too close to him,” the suit said.

Bruck quit after five sessions, delivered through an online video link, because he “experienced deepening depression and anxiety leading to suicidal ideation and feelings of hopelessness about his life,” the suit said.

Heffner angrily warned Bruck that he was “making a big mistake” and “throwing (his) life away” by “giving into (his) desires” and that he would “never lead a happy life,” but would “lead a life of unhappiness in that unhealthy lifestyle,” the suit said.

“You can change if you just try hard enough,” the suit said Goldberg told him. “You just need to work really hard, we are experts at this. We have helped so many people.”

Levin attended weekly sessions for 18 months at JONAH’s Jersey City, New Jersey, headquarters conducted by Alan Downing, an unlicensed JONAH counselor who calls himself a “life coach,” the suit said. Downing is named as a defendant in the case.

The lawsuit described what happened in one of those sessions in October 2008 with Levin, who was 18 at the time.

“Downing initiated a discussion about Levin’s body and instructed Levin to stand in front of a full-length mirror and hold a staff,” the suit said. “Downing directed Levin to say one negative thing about himself, remove an article of clothing, then repeat the process. Although Levin protested and expressed discomfort, at Downing’s insistence, Levin submitted and continued until he was fully naked. Downing then instructed Levin to touch his penis and then his buttocks. Levin, unsure what to do but trusting in and relying on Downing, followed the instructions, upon which Downing said ‘good’ and the session ended.”

Two other plaintiffs — Benjamin Unger and Michael Ferguson — described similar incidents in the suit.

“On one occasion, Downing instructed Unger to beat an effigy of his mother with a tennis racket, as though killing her, and encouraged Unger to scream at his mother while beating her effigy,” the suit said.

“Conversion therapy was, in Unger’s experience, ‘psychological abuse,’” it said. “By the time he terminated sessions with JONAH, he was deeply depressed and had commenced taking antidepressant medications.”

Downing “picked apart every human emotion and childhood disappointment” of Unger, to present them as treatable origins of Unger’s orientation, the suit said.

Unger’s ability to have physical and emotional relationships with men was impaired and he was unable to work for a year, the suit said.

Bruck, Levin, Unger and Ferguson are “adjusting well” four years after their last conversion therapy treatments, according to Wolfe. “They have had time to get on with their lives,” he said.

Their lawsuit should put all conversion therapists on notice that they can be held accountable, Wolfe said.

“We really want to bring this lawsuit to bring attention to this practice that takes place in many parts of the country, praying on vulnerable young people,” Wolfe said.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gay 'Conversion Therapy' Faces Test in Courts
By Erik Eckholm

New York TImes - November 27, 2012

Gay “conversion therapy,” which claims to help men overcome unwanted same-sex attractions but has been widely attacked as unscientific and harmful, is facing its first tests in the courtroom.

Chaim Levin

Chaim Levin, a plaintiff in a lawsuit being filed in New Jersey against therapists that claim to make homosexual men heterosexual.

Michael Ferguson, 30, who sought help from therapists in 2008, is another plaintiff in the lawsuit.

In New Jersey on Tuesday, four gay men who tried the therapy filed a civil suit against a prominent counseling group, charging it with deceptive practices under the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.

The former clients said they were emotionally scarred by false promises of inner transformation and humiliating techniques that included stripping naked in front of the counselor and beating effigies of their mothers. They paid thousands of dollars in fees over time, they said, only to be told that the lack of change in their sexual feelings was their own fault.

In California, so-called ex-gay therapists have gone to court to argue for the other side. They are seeking to block a new state law, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September and celebrated as a milestone by advocates for gay rights, that bans conversion therapy for minors.

In Sacramento on Friday, a federal judge will hear the first of two legal challenges brought by conservative law groups claiming that the ban is an unconstitutional infringement on speech, religion and privacy.

Since the 1970s, when mainstream mental health associations stopped branding homosexuality as a disorder, a small network of renegade therapists, conservative religious leaders and self-identified “life coaches” has continued to argue that it is not inborn, but an aberration rooted in childhood trauma. Homosexuality is caused, these therapists say, by a stifling of normal masculine development, often by distant fathers and overbearing mothers or by early sexual abuse.

An industry of “reparative therapy” clinics and men’s weekend retreats has drawn thousands of teenagers and adults who hope to rid themselves of homosexual urges, whether because of religious beliefs or family pressures.

But leading scientific and medical groups say that the theories of sexuality are unfounded and that there is no evidence that core sexual urges can be changed. They also warn that the therapy can, in the words of the American Psychiatric Association, cause “depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior” and “reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient.”

Those conclusions will be at the center of the coming legal fights in the state and federal courts.

In the spotlight in New Jersey are a counseling center called Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or Jonah; its co-founder Arthur Goldberg; and an affiliated “life coach,” Alan Downing.

Mr. Goldberg helped found Jonah in 1999, after he finished serving a prison sentence and probation for financial fraud he committed in the 1980s. The group describes itself as “dedicated to educating the worldwide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors that lead to same-sex attractions,” and says it “works directly with those struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions,” including non-Jews.

While many Orthodox Jews consider homosexual relations to be a violation of divine law, Mr. Goldberg’s group has no official standing within Judaism, and many Jews accept homosexuality.

Neither Mr. Goldberg nor Mr. Downing is licensed as a therapist, so they are not subject to censure by professional associations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a rights group based in Montgomery, Ala., is bringing the suit on behalf of four former patients and two of their mothers, who say they paid thousands of dollars not only for useless therapy for their sons but also for more counseling to undo the damage.

“The defendants peddled antigay pseudoscience, defaming gay people as loathsome and deranged,” said Sam Wolfe, a lawyer with the group.

The suit, filed in Superior Court in Hudson County, calls for monetary compensation and for a shutdown of Jonah.

Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Downing did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comment.

________________________________________________________________

Gay men sue counselors who promised to make them straight

By Alan Duke

CNN - November 27, 2012

Before Sheldon Bruck told his orthodox Jewish parents he was gay, the teenager looked for a way out of homosexuality.

His search led him to JONAH -- Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing -- which claimed on its website to help people "struggling with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions."

"This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law," said Samuel Wolfe, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

'Gay cure' therapists, 'cured' student sue California over new law

The defendants did not respond to CNN calls and e-mails for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in Hudson County, New Jersey, Superior Court. A page on the organization's website touts success stories from the program with letters from past participants and their family members.

The therapy, which can cost up to $10,000 a year, put them at risk of "depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior," while giving them no benefits, the suit said.

"As long as you put in the effort, you're going to change," Goldberg told Bruck in the summer of 2009, the lawsuit said.

California governor OKs ban on gay conversion therapy, calling it 'quackery'

"You can change if you just try hard enough," the suit said Goldberg told him. "You just need to work really hard, we are experts at this. We have helped so many people."

"I was manipulated into believing that I could change my sexual orientation, but instead I was subjected to terrible abuse that mirrored the traumatic assault that I experienced as a young person," Levin said at a news conference Tuesday. " What I can tell you is that conversion therapy does not work. My family and I have wasted thousands of dollars and many hours on this scam."

The lawsuit described what happened in one of those sessions in October 2008 with Levin, who was 18 at the time.

Two other plaintiffs -- Benjamin Unger and Michael Ferguson -- described similar incidents in the suit.

Downing "picked apart every human emotion and childhood disappointment" of Unger, to present them as treatable origins of Unger's orientation, the suit said.

"I watched as grown men were frenzied into fits of emotional rage against their mothers and encouraged to act out physical violence against their parents in order to access their so-called true manhood and become more heterosexual," Ferguson told reporters Tuesday.

Unger's ability to have physical and emotional relationships with men was impaired and he was unable to work for a year, the suit said.

Bruck, Levin, Unger and Ferguson are "adjusting well" four years after their last conversion therapy treatments, according to Wolfe. "They have had time to get on with their lives," he said.

Their lawsuit should put all conversion therapists on notice that they can be held accountable, Wolfe said.

The SPLC has identified 70 conversion therapy providers across the United States. A California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last month made it illegal for licensed counselors to use the therapy with clients under 18.

"We really want to bring this lawsuit to bring attention to this practice that takes place in many parts of the country, preying on vulnerable young people," Wolfe said.

Opinion: Oops, I left my sexual orientation at home

________________________________________________________________

New Jersey conversion therapist vows to keep going in the face of lawsuit

By Christian Dem in NC

Daily KOS - November 29, 2012

On Tuesday, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a Jersey City-based conversion therapy that supposedly claims it can turn gay people straight, was slapped with a first-of-its-kind lawsuit from the Southern Poverty Law Center and four former patients alleging they were defrauded. Well, today JONAH announced that it's going to keep going as before.

JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg said the position that people's sexual orientation can be changed by therapy is not contradicted by the latest statements from the American Psychiatric Association, but he did not give any examples.

"We remain steadfast in our commitment to assist those with unwanted same-sex attractions," Goldberg said in a statement to CNN Thursday. "There are thousands of people who have shed their unwanted same-sex attractions, not only through our programs, but also through other similar programs."

In a statement, JONAH calls the suit groundless and a threat to free speech. Goldberg himself doubled down on this when he made the rounds of religious right talk radio today. On AFA Today, Goldberg claimed that suing him is the same as suing Weight Watchers for not losing weight through its program.

However, that comparison doesn't hold water when you look at some of the shocking things that the four plaintiffs say went on at JONAH sessions. Among them:

The conversion therapy techniques described in the suit included having them strip naked in group sessions, cuddling and intimate holding of others of the same sex, violently beating an effigy of their mothers with a tennis racket, visiting bath houses "in order to be nude with father figures," and being "subjected to ridicule as 'faggots' and 'homos' in mock locker room scenarios."

It gets even worse--read the complaint here if you have a strong enough stomach. And these guys have the nerve to say that this is a First Amendment issue? I find it hard to believe any fair-minded person, regardless of where they stand on gay rights, would find these practices acceptable.

Among some of the more chilling revelations:

One of the plaintiffs, Chaim Levin, was told to strip naked in front of counselor Alan Downing, then to touch his penis and buttocks.
Another plaintiff, Benjamin Unger, was told to beat an effigy of his mother with a tennis racket and scream at it. Supposedly, his mother was responsible for making him gay.
Another plaintiff, Sheldon Bruck, was told that by reliving and magnifying hurtful experiences from his past, he'd become straight. He was also told that he became gay as a result of his mother being too close to him. Bruck was so traumatized by this "therapy" that he seriously thought about suicide.

If I'm the SPLC and the plaintiffs, after reading this I'm seriously thinking about seeking an injunction. I'm no lawyer, but there's enough evidence of potentially irreparable harm if this is allowed to go on that it wouldn't be out of line for a judge to rein them in.

________________________________________________________________

Rep. Speier introduces resolution condemning ‘conversion’ therapy

By Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Washington Blade -November 28, 2012

Sheldon Bruck, who is gay, said he is a survivor of conversion therapy. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution into the House of Representatives on Wednesday declaring that efforts by mental health practitioners to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression are “dangerous and harmful.”

“It is the sense of Congress that sexual orientation and gender identity or expression change efforts directed at minors are discredited and ineffective, have no legitimate therapeutic purpose, and are dangerous and harmful,” the resolution states.

“Congress encourages each state to take steps to protect minors from efforts that promote or promise to change sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, based on the premise that homosexuality or transgender identity is a mental illness or developmental disorder that can or should be cured,” the resolution states.

Speier introduced her non-binding resolution one day after the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit in New Jersey on behalf of four gay men and two parents against a New Jersey based counseling group that performs conversion therapy. The lawsuit charges Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) with committing consumer fraud by falsely claiming the gay men could change their sexual orientation from gay to straight.

“Let’s get this straight,” Speier said at Capitol Hill news conference called to announce the introduction of her resolution. “Being gay, lesbian, transgender is not a disease that can be cured or a mental health issue that can be treated. Sadly, not everyone gets this,” she said.

“A quick Internet search will bring up some 80 practitioners and groups that promise to help individuals to become heterosexual,” she told the news conference. “Gay conversion has become a multimillion dollar industry.”

Speier said she and her staff were investigating whether some of these practitioners and organizations, most of whom are unlicensed, were being paid to perform conversion therapy on patients who pay them through federal programs such as Medicaid or TRICARE, a federal medical program that assists military veterans.

“In my cursory investigation, I have found two additional instances of so-called mental health professionals that advertise these services and appear to be eligible for federal dollars,” she said. “This morning, I sent letters of inquiry to Medicaid and TRICARE to determine if these instances reflect systemic weaknesses that allow federal taxpayer dollars to go to harmful, illegitimate medical services.”

Also speaking at the news conference were Sheldon Bruck and Jerry Spencer, who described themselves as gay men and survivors of conversion therapy. Bruck and his mother are among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed on t heir behalf by the Southern Poverty Law Center against the New Jersey based JONAH group.

Spencer, 23, said his conservative Catholic parents pressured him into undergoing conversion therapy when he was 14 and the therapy lasted more than five years before he chose to end it.

“It was all a scam,” he said. But before he came to that realization, the therapy resulted in “deep emotional scars” both for him and his family.

“I’m telling my story to help others,” he said. “This industry preys on gay people and their families.”

Speier’s office said Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) signed on as co-sponsors for the resolution. Speier said she couldn’t immediately determine which House committee would be assigned to consider the resolution. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, has said he doesn’t expect the Republican-controlled House will pass any LGBT supportive bills or resolutions over the next two years.

Representatives of the Human Rights Campaign, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights also spoke at the news conference.

________________________________________________________________

Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) denounces reparative therapy

Rabbinical Council of America - November 29, 2012

The following will be released later on today

Rabbinical Council of America's Statement Regarding JONAH (Jews Offering New

Alternatives to Homosexuality)

In the years since the Rabbinical Council of America's first comment about JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality), "the only Jewish based organization dedicated to assisting individuals with unwanted same sex attractions move from gay to straight" in January, 2004, in which we suggested that rabbis might refer congregants to them for reparative therapy, many concerns about JONAH and reparative therapy have been raised.

As rabbis trained in Jewish law and values, we base our religious positions regarding medical matters on the best research and advice of experts and scholars in those areas, along with concern for the religious, emotional, and physical welfare of those impacted by our decisions. Our responsibility is to apply halakhic (Jewish legal) values to those opinions.

Based on consultation with a wide range of mental health experts and therapists who informed us of the lack of scientifically rigorous studies that support the effectiveness of therapies to change sexual orientation, a review of literature written by experts and major medical and mental health organizations, and based upon reports of the negative and, at times, deleterious consequences to clients of some of the interventions endorsed by JONAH, the Rabbinical Council of America decided in 2011, as part of an overall statement on the Jewish attitude towards homosexuality, to withdraw its original letter referencing JONAH. Despite numerous attempts by the RCA to have mention of that original letter removed from the JONAH website, our calls, letters, and emails remain unanswered. As Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the RCA, stated in 2011, "We want it taken down. JONAH said it was a letter of support, but if you read the letter it is not. They took an informational statement and reprinted it, and the use of that as an endorsement is an error."

We believe that properly trained mental health professionals who abide bythe values and ethics of their professions can and do make a difference in the lives of their patients and clients. The RCA believes that responsible therapists, in partnership with amenable clients, should be able to work on

whatever issues those clients voluntarily bring to their session. Allegations made against JONAH lead us to question whether JONAH meets those standards.

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University and author of the 1974 Encyclopedia Judaica Year Book article, "Judaism and the Modern Attitude to Homosexuality," the first contemporary article to address the issue from the perspective of Jewish law and philosophy, had originally commended the work of JONAH. In response to the negative reports about JONAH's activities and concerns expressed to him by respected mental health professionals, Dr. Lamm withdrew his endorsement of JONAH.

For further information about this statement, you may contact:

Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

President

201-568-5860

rgoldin@ahavathtorah.org

Rabbi Mark Dratch

Executive Vice President

212-807-9000

mdratch@rabbis.org

The Rabbinical Council of America

305 Seventh Ave

New York, NY 10001

212-807-9000

www.Rabbis.org

_________________________________________________________________________________

Conversion therapist: Lawsuit won't stop us
By Alan Duke
CNN - November 29, 2012

WATCH VIDEO: CLICK HERE

(CNN) -- The conversion therapy center being sued by gay men who paid the counselors to make them straight vowed it would continue to "assist those with unwanted same-sex attractions."

"The lawsuit is without merit, and is designed to create a chilling effect upon speech and programs that assist people in overcoming unwanted same-sex attractions," a statement from JONAH -- Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing -- said Thursday.

Four former JONAH clients, who were teens when they signed up for help, filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against JONAH and two of its counselors Tuesday, saying they were defrauded by JONAH's claim that "being gay is a mental disorder" that could be reversed by conversion therapy -- "a position rejected by the American Psychiatric Association four decades ago," the lawsuit said.

"This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law," said Samuel Wolfe, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC, an Alabama-based civil rights group, is providing legal aid to the plaintiffs.

Their lawsuit should put all conversion therapists on notice that they can be held accountable, Wolfe said.

JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg said the position that people's sexual orientation can be changed by therapy is not contradicted by the latest statements from the American Psychiatric Association, but he did not give any examples.

"We remain steadfast in our commitment to assist those with unwanted same-sex attractions," Goldberg said in a statement to CNN Thursday. "There are thousands of people who have shed their unwanted same-sex attractions, not only through our programs, but also through other similar programs."

In an interview Thursday with the Family Research Council's Washington Watch Radio, Goldberg said he was optimistic that JONAH has "a very strong case and we should be able to emerge victorious."

Outlawing gay conversion therapy

The lawsuit, filed in Hudson County, New Jersey, Superior Court, said conversion therapy, which can cost up to $10,000 a year, can put patients at risk of "depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior," while giving them no benefits.

Plaintiff Sheldon Bruck was 17 when he sought Goldberg's help in 2009. He wanted to assure his orthodox Jewish parents there was a way out of homosexuality when he told them he was gay.

Goldberg promised Bruck that "JONAH could help him change his orientation from gay to straight," the suit said.

The conversion therapy techniques described in the suit included having them strip naked in group sessions, cuddling and intimate holding of others of the same sex, violently beating an effigy of their mothers with a tennis racket, visiting bath houses "in order to be nude with father figures," and being "subjected to ridicule as 'faggots' and 'homos' in mock locker room scenarios."

"As long as you put in the effort, you're going to change," Goldberg told Bruck, the lawsuit said.

"You can change if you just try hard enough," the suit said Goldberg told him. "You just need to work really hard, we are experts at this. We have helped so many people."

"I was manipulated into believing that I could change my sexual orientation, but instead I was subjected to terrible abuse that mirrored the traumatic assault that I experienced as a young person," Levin said at a news conference Tuesday. "What I can tell you is that conversion therapy does not work. My family and I have wasted thousands of dollars and many hours on this scam."

The lawsuit described what happened in one of those sessions in October 2008 with Levin, who was 18 at the time.

Two other plaintiffs -- Benjamin Unger and Michael Ferguson -- described similar incidents in the suit.

Downing "picked apart every human emotion and childhood disappointment" of Unger, to present them as treatable origins of Unger's orientation, the suit said.

Unger's ability to have physical and emotional relationships with men was impaired and he was unable to work for a year, the suit said.

Bruck, Levin, Unger and Ferguson are "adjusting well" four years after their last conversion therapy treatments, according to Wolfe. "They have had time to get on with their lives," he said.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Arthur Goldberg Compares his Ex-Gay Therapy Business to Weight Watchers

By Michael Allen

Opposing Views - November 30, 2012

Arthur Goldberg, founder of the ex-gay therapy company Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) in Jersey City, New Jersey, is being sued by several former gay clients [and their mothers] for consumer fraud and failing to turn them straight.

According to the lawsuit, the therapy sessions sometimes involved patients and counselors undressing, 'cuddling' between young patients and older male counselors, and patients holding their penises in front of staff.

Before founding JONAH, Goldberg was convicted on felony charges and served time in prison for mail fraud and conspiracy, however, now he has become a hero to the Religious Right, reports Right Wing Watch.org.

While speaking to American Family Association president Tim Wildmon and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins on the American Family Association radio show today, Goldberg denied that he defrauded customers by advertising that his group is able to cure clients of being gay.

Goldberg defended his company by saying: "If I went to Weight Watchers and wanted to lose 60 pounds, but didn't lose the weight at Weight Watchers, does that mean someone should be suing Weight Watchers?"

Goldberg failed to mention that losing weight via exercise and calorie control is a scientifically proven method, while ex-gay reparative therapies are not been supported by the mainstream medical establishment.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Battle Over 'Gay Therapy' Taken to Court - California, New Jersey judges review 'conversion therapy'

By Seth Cline

US NEWS - November 30, 2012

Ex-gay therapists, who attempt to convert people with "unwanted same-sex attractions" to heterosexuality, are headed to courts across the country to keep their controversial practices alive.

In California, four so-called "reparative therapy" practitioners and two families head to court Friday to ask a federal judge to block a recently-passed California law cracking down on the practice, the Sacramento Bee reports. And in New Jersey, four gay former patients have sued a therapy provider for fraud and deceptive practices, according to CNN.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill in September that banned the therapy from being used on minors. But two families who claim their sons have benefitted from the therapy and two organizations that support the practice are bringing an injunction against the law, the first of its kind, in order to delay its Jan. 1. implementation.

The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, one of the plaintiffs in the case, views the law as an intrusion on the rights of parents and says homosexuality is "primarily developmental in origin, and it is — to differing degrees — responsive to psychotherapeutic measures."

In her court filings, California Attorney General Kamala Harris writes that the law is based on scientific consensus that "homosexuality is not a disease, condition, or disorder in need of a 'cure.'" Her statement went on to say that the injunction would subject minors to a practice that "the state and every major mental health organization in the country have condemned as an outmoded, ineffective, and potentially dangerous relic from an era when homosexuality was pathologized and criminalized," according to the Bee.

In New Jersey, four former clients of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against the group, saying the therapy wrongfully made them believe that "being gay is a mental disorder" and did so using methods that caused "depression and other emotional harm."

"These counselors are skilled at manipulating you into believing just about anything," said Benjamin Unger, a plaintiff in the case. "During my time with JONAH, they told me constantly that my mom had made me gay. I was so convinced that I refused to have any contact with her for several months, which caused a great deal of damage to our relationship."

In the complaint, which they filed through the Southern Poverty Law Center, the plaintiffs describe many of the controversial "treatments" administered by JONAH for "re-orientation." The treatments including nude group therapy sessions, telling patients to beat and verbally assault effigies of their mothers, as well as recommending patients to shower privately with their fathers, as well as in public at gyms and bath houses with other men, to simulate being nude with their fathers.

JONAH maintains that the practice "helps to assess and overcome deep issues" with its patients.

"The lawsuit is without merit, and is designed to create a chilling effect upon speech and programs that assist people in overcoming unwanted same-sex attractions," the group said in a statement.

Arthur Goldberg, JONAH's co-director, said in the statement that he and the organization "remain steadfast in our commitment to assist those with unwanted same-sex attractions."

The suit aims to revoke JONAH's business license, to place a permanent injunction against JONAH's staff from practicing ex-gay therapy, and to recoup the costs of the therapy as well as pay for the cost of "repairing damage resulting from [JONAH's] unlawful acts."

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A more modern view of homosexuality

By Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky

Jewish Journal - December 5, 2012

The American Modern Orthodox community has just entered uncharted territory. Last week, our largest rabbinic organization, the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) formally withdrew its support of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality). JONAH has long been the Orthodox community’s address for reparative therapy, a process that is intended to cure people of their homosexual attractions and to replace these with heterosexual ones. The recently announced lawsuits against JONAH brought by four of its former clients, accusing JONAH of both fraud and abusive practices, was apparently the last straw for the RCA.

Strictly speaking, the RCA’s statement rejects only JONAH. It, in fact, goes on to say, “We believe that properly trained mental health professionals who abide by the values and ethics of their professions can and do make a difference in the lives of their patients and clients [and that these professionals] should be able to work on whatever issues [their] clients voluntarily bring to their session.” This is, of course, indisputably correct. But the statement’s acknowledgement of “the lack of scientifically rigorous studies that support the effectiveness of therapies to change sexual orientation” represents a paradigm shift. It is a rejection of the very premise that JONAH and all reparative therapy is built on, namely that sexual orientation is subject to change, and that any client who works hard enough at it can become heterosexual. This may not strike many readers as being a revelation at all. But through this RCA statement, the Modern Orthodox community has formally crossed into a brave, new world.

Any discussion about what the practical implications of this might be needs to be grounded in an understanding — even an appreciation — of the context out of which it emerged. Any of us who grew up in Orthodox institutions in the 1980s or earlier knows firsthand that homosexuality, and, in particular, male homosexuality, was spoken of with disgust and revulsion, and that homosexual slurs were de rigueur. (In our own defense of course, the larger social landscape wasn’t much different.) And even as the campaigns for gay rights and recognition played out over the ensuing decades, Orthodoxy remained largely unmoved and unchanged. There was only one serious grappling with the issue during this period, and that was the essay written by Rabbi Norman Lamm in 1974 which, while utilizing language that is offensive in today’s context, took the unprecedented step of distinguishing between the “sin” and the “sinner,” asserting that while “the act itself remains an abomination, the fact of illness lays upon us the obligation of pastoral compassion, psychological understanding, and social sympathy.”

Though Rabbi Lamm’s words undoubtedly, and with good cause, arouse anger, pain and resentment in many contemporary readers, understanding why he used them is crucial to understanding the true significance and implications of last week’s developments. The “illness” paradigm for explaining homosexuality (which was, indeed, the American Psychological Association’s paradigm as well until 1973, just one year prior) was Rabbi Lamm’s — and Orthodoxy’s — legal and theological lynchpin. Legal in that it provided access to the legal category of “transgression as a result of compulsion,” a category that elicits a more generous judgment. Theological in that it provided a response to the conundrum that God, who is all-knowing, just and kind, could not possibly prohibit that which cannot humanly be resisted. As long as homosexuality was an illness, a person’s failure to resist its temptations need not be ascribed to a Divine failure, but to an unfortunate human one. Needless to say, the “illness” paradigm also led inexorably to the obligation to seek therapeutic intervention. And while the most modern end of the Orthodox spectrum began to eschew reparative therapy some years ago — see, for example, the July 2010 “Statement of Principles on the Place of Jews With a Homosexual Orientation in Our Community” (http://statementofprinciplesnya.blogspot.com/) — the balance continued to insist upon it. (See, for example, the 2011 “Declaration on the Torah Approach to Homosexuality” — www.torahdec.org.)

The statement of the RCA however, quietly, boldly and courageously breaks new ground. In recognizing that there is no evidence that reparative therapy is effective, and that there is, consequently, no obligation to pursue it, our community is acknowledging that homosexuality may very well be simply part of the human condition. Accordingly, we have decided that homosexuals should not any longer have to pay the psychological, emotional and even physical price for our theological comfort. We have effectively designated our theological question as a teyku, one whose answer still needs to be determined. But one that will, meanwhile, not prevent us from seeing the human truths in front of our eyes.

It is not realistic to expect that Orthodoxy will some day recognize homosexual relationships as being equal to heterosexual ones, or to authorize gay marriage, or even to drop the idea that gay sex is a transgression of biblical law. Orthodoxy’s foundational beliefs concerning the Divinity of Torah and the authority of halachah (received Jewish law) preclude such developments. In other words, if the Torah declares a particular action prohibited, it’s not within our authority to say otherwise. But we can regard homosexual acts as we do other forms of nonobservance, as we do, for example, the nonobservance of kashrut, both in the sense that it doesn’t carry the charge of immorality and also in the sense that it doesn’t harm our ability to have a normal familial relationship with someone. The shift from Rabbi Lamm’s “sympathy” to the RCA’s recognition of the reality of sexual orientation can and should bring us to a place in which we can accept our friends and children and siblings for who they are, grant them the dignity and respect that any person deserves, and love them as our own.

Within our community, it’s a brave, new and better world.

Yosef Kanefsky is senior rabbi at B’nai David-Judea (bnaidavid.com), a Modern Orthodox congregation in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood in Los Angeles. _________________________________________________________________________________

JONAH Exploits Lonely Old Gay Man In New Propaganda Video

Youtube - September 21, 2012

Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) is run by convicted felon Arthur Abba Goldberg and Elaine Berk. Both have out gay sons, yet they run a Jewish organization to heal people of their gayness? They don't sound like very credible witnesses to change.

In this sad video, you will witness how these con artists exploit a pathetic, lonely, old gay man who has no friends. Of course he doesn't have friends -- because he spent his entire life in the closet having anonymous sex at parks. Had he come out and felt proud of his sexual orientation, he wouldn't be in the sad predicament that he is in.

Is this poster boy the best that JONAH could come up with?

As usual, JONAH traffics in stereotypes, misinformation and outright lies. There is no evidence of a bad childhood or gay kids cowering at home as children. Godlberg and Berk are simply making things up or quoting quacks with no credibility. Nothing they say is backed by any credible medical or mental health organization.

When Berk speaks of the "gay genome" she displays appalling ignorance and twists science to fit her propaganda model. In fact, every credible scientist will tell you that homosexuality is genetically and biologically influenced.

In Part II, the "ex-gay" is sent to the gym by his therapist. This is rich because this is what Gollberg had to say about gay men and the gym:

"By the way, did you notice that a lot of gays who remain in the gay lifestyle also do a lot of body building," said Goldberg. "They will be in the gym a lot trying to build up their pecs...Because they have these body image issues and don't feel they are masculine enough."

So in his propaganda video he sends the guy to the gym? These people lie so much they can't remember what they said the day before. And how about how incredibly stupid they made the heterosexual body builders sound? It was a cartoon of masculinity!

JONAH and reparative therapy is a total joke. This is why it should be banned for minors across the nation. Creeps like Berk and Goldberg pretending to be experts on an issue they know virtually nothing about. This is just Goldberg's latest con and it shows by this amateurish video that confuses stereotypes with science.

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Jewish Group Accused of ‘Ex Gay’ Lies

By Norm Kent

South Florida Gay News - December 5, 2012

Last week, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a group that offers conversion therapy to gays, was sued for fraud in New Jersey state court. JONAH’s operator and founder Arthur Goldberg first came to national attention in February of 2010 when the South Florida Gay News and Truth Wins Out did a joint investigative report exposing him as a convicted felon and disbarred attorney who had pled guilty to federal and wire mail fraud charges in a phony bond scheme.

While Goldberg protested those past deeds were irrelevant to his current business, SFGN showed the lengths he went to conceal his corrupt acts. The Associated Press reported this week on the present lawsuits by three plaintiffs who allege that JONAH has been using discredited conversion therapy tactics to “cure homosexuals.” They are asking that JONAH’s business license be revoked for violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, seeking cash damages as well.

"This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law," said Samuel Wolfe, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center, talking to CNN.

Three male plaintiffs contend they were defrauded by JONAH's claim that "being gay is a mental disorder" that could be reversed by conversion therapy -- "a position rejected by the American Psychiatric Association four decades ago," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also alleges that the methods do not work and shouldn’t be marketed. JONAH’s Arthur Goldberg replied that the suit is “meritless”, arguing that it chills his first amendment rights to freedom of speech. Meanwhile, the pleadings in the litigation accuse JONAH of utilizing shocking techniques to reach their goal of conversion therapy.

Specifically, the participants in the program were required to strip nude during sessions, intimately hold other males, and spend more time with other nude males in health clubs and bathhouses, "in order to be nude with father figures." One of the JONAH ‘life coaches’ also named in the suit, Alan Downing, was also accused of encouraging the plaintiff to lie naked and touch their penis and buttocks.

The reparative therapy methods used by many of these clinics are so offensive and discredited that earlier this year California passed a law banning them for clients under age 18. Governor Jerry Brown went as far as to call the procedures “quackery.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are still about 70 conversion therapists practicing in 20 states.

JONAH’s leader, Arthur Goldberg, is 72. He did 18 months in federal prison, starting in 1989, for his fraud conviction. Revealed in the SFGN expose, the pre-trial report submitted to the court for sentencing purposes accused him of “conspiratorial fraud of spectacular scope,” alleging he was “knowingly and willfully dishonest.” Meanwhile, he stands by his philosophy that all gays “can readapt from their gender deficiencies” with reparative therapy.

The SFGN expose of JONAH was covered in the national press and can be accessed on our website at http://bit.ly/cm7CfA

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Bill Would Block Attempts to Change Children's Sexual Orientation

By Andrew Kitchenman

NJ Spotlight - December 12, 2012

Should psychological counselors in New Jersey be allowed to attempt to change the sexual orientation of children?

A bill banning the practice is scheduled for a hearing with the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on December 17. The issue has already sparked national debate, with socially conservative professional groups parting ways with larger national organizations.

The bill (S-2278) is sponsored by Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem) and Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak (D-Union).

The New Jersey Psychological Association supports the measure. Executive Director Josephine Minardo said a consensus has formed against the approach.

“All of the major national psychological, psychiatric, and counseling associations -- including our national organization, the American Psychological Association -- have found that this kind of therapy is actually very harmful,” in addition to being ineffective, Minardo said.

This puts the association in the unique position of supporting a bill restricting the therapy that some of its members provide.

“We have just cautioned that we have concerns about legislating specific types of treatment and we don’t want to it to set a precedent,” Minardo said.

The bill prohibits counselors from attempting to change children’s sexual orientation, including efforts to change “behaviors or gender expressions, or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward a person of the same gender.”

Opponents of the measure include the Jersey City-based Jews Offering New Alternative for Healing, or JONAH.

JONAH founder Arthur Goldberg said legislators don’t understand “both sides of the equation. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people who have successfully changed” their sexual orientation through therapy, he said.

He also noted that the American College of Pediatricians, a socially conservative organization, supports the therapy.

Goldberg said he hopes that the public becomes better informed about the issue.

“In a free democracy, freedom of speech is a healthy thing,” Goldberg said. “Let’s have a full and fair dialogue.”

Goldberg also noted that U.S. District Court Judge William Schubb ruled that a similar law in California infringes on the free-speech rights of counselors, temporarily blocking it.

Taking JONAH to Court

A legal case in New Jersey is also targeting the practice.

In November, Goldberg and JONAH were sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The lawsuit maintains that the organization is committing consumer fraud by offering sexual orientation “reparative” therapy.

The suit quotes a warning by the American Psychiatric Association that the “potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with society prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient.”

Sweeney said he decided to become a sponsor of the bill because attempts to change sexual orientation are fundamentally wrong.

“You’re being told that something is wrong with you -- that’s not right,” Sweeney said. “If you love your children, you have to accept your child for who he or she is.”

Sweeney said counselors who believe they can change people’s sexual orientation have an outdated view. He expressed concern that parents would try to force this therapy on their children.

“Kids are under enormous peer pressure to start with and being a kid and being homosexual, it’s a lot of stress in the school environment to start with and the one place you look for support is your family,” Sweeney said.

Goldberg rejected the argument that homosexuality isn’t an appropriate subject for treatment, despite psychologists arguing for decades that it isn’t a disorder.

“Is it appropriate to treat people who are overweight” or who have other conditions that aren’t mental disorders? Goldberg asked.

Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a national legal organization opposed to laws prohibiting the practice, said the bill would interfere with both freedom of speech and the counselor-patient relationship. His organization provides legal representation to the American Association of Christian Counselors.

“There is evidence of efficacy,” Staver said, adding: “It is the parent who has the ability to consult their children and make the decision in conjunction with their children” whether to pursue counseling.

Lesniak said he was prompted to support the measure based on the scientific evidence he had read.

“I know that professional organizations have already taken positions that this type of treatment has no basis in science and that it has proved to be harmful in cases,” Lesniak said. “The combination of those two in concert prompted me to ban it for minors. If adults want to make that choice, go through treatment that has no scientific basis -- that happens all the time -- but minors don’t have that choice and the best course is to protect them from a treatment that does not have any efficacy.”

The Assembly version of the bill has been referred to the Assembly Women and Children Committee.

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Will Orthodox Throw JONAH Overboard?

Lawsuit on reparative therapy shines spotlight on tensions within community over homosexuality.
By Helen Chernikoff
Jewish Week - December 12, 2012

When Mordechai Levovitz learned that a civil rights organization had announced a lawsuit against a Jewish counseling center in New Jersey that claims to “cure” homosexuality, he felt mainly rage. This was despite the fact that he is co-director of an organization, JQY, that tries to be a haven for Jews who say they are traumatized by the kind of treatment the counseling center offers.

The rabbis who promote this so-called reparative therapy are as guilty as the center itself for ruining the lives of religious gay people, and even driving some to suicide, he said. But they won’t be brought to justice in this lifetime, he added.

“It is not the Torah that makes people suicidal, for there are many commandments that Jews struggle with,” said Levovitz, who was raised and still identifies as Orthodox. “It is the shame created by the community. Rabbis … who reinforce this shame make life unbearable. The blood is on their hands.”

The lawsuit, filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center on Nov. 27, shines a spotlight on an Orthodox world caught in the grip of a painful conflict. After the suit was announced, the centrist Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America further distanced itself from JONAH, the counseling center. A traditional journal characterized homosexuality as an abomination. All the while, the individuals whose lives are the subject of such intense debate are trying to figure out how to be gay and Jewish in ways that feel true to them.

The 2001 film “Trembling Before G-d,” which followed gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews and interviewed rabbis and therapists, spurred the Orthodox world to begin grappling more openly with homosexuality, still viewed in the most traditional communities as a perversion. The years since have seen a series of statements and forums, including one at Yeshiva University in 2009 that focused on the importance of empathy. Levovitz co-founded JQY about a decade ago.

Nearly a third of the New York metropolitan’s area’s 1.5 million Jews are Orthodox, according to the population survey released in June by UJA-Federation of New York.

The lawsuit charges JONAH, formerly known as Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, with fraud for claiming to convert people from gay to straight. It calls for both JONAH’s closing and monetary compensation of an as-yet unspecified amount that would include triple the amounts the plaintiffs paid to JONAH, the cost of therapy undergone as a result of the experience with JONAH and other items for the four plaintiffs.

Three of the plaintiffs — Chaim Levin, 23; Benjamin Unger, 25; and Sheldon Bruck, 20 — are members of JQY. The fourth, Michael Ferguson, 30, comes from a Mormon background, said Sam Wolfe, a Southern Poverty Law Center lawyer involved with the case. Jo Bruck and Bella Levin, Sheldon and Chaim’s mothers, are also plaintiffs.

JONAH will be defended by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, a nonprofit law firm that provides defense services to clients whose religious liberty and free speech rights have been compromised, according to a statement from the fund. The SPLC lawsuit seeks to violate the First Amendment freedoms of speech, religion and association, said Charles LiMandri, the fund’s president, in the statement. JONAH, the statement says, has helped clients resolve unwanted same-sex attractions.

The suit describes individual sessions, which cost a minimum of $100, and group sessions, which cost $60, in which Jonah’s clients were instructed to undress; sometimes the counselor was naked as well. Clients were also urged to blame their parents for making them gay and to beat effigies of their mothers.

The Southern Poverty Law Center first reached out to JQY members to ask for their help with a campaign to raise public awareness about and discredit reparative therapy. Later, the organization asked them to serve as plaintiffs on the related lawsuit, said Levin. His “It Gets Better” Internet video about being raised religious and coming out as gay brought him to the center’s attention.

Levin, who grew up in the Chabad community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, sought help at JONAH after he was thrown out of his yeshiva at age 17 for being gay. He complied when his therapist, referred by JONAH, asked him to touch himself during the therapy, and then quit.

After spending two years trying to become straight, Levin needed three years — and more therapy — to undo the harm that effort inflicted on his psyche, he said. He came out about three years ago and is now one of the Orthodox LGBT world’s most visible spokesmen.

The day after the lawsuit was announced, the rabbis who produce Dialogue, an Orthodox journal, released an article condemning homosexuality as a biblical abomination through public websites, like weebly.com, and the e-mail listserv of the AJOP, or Association for Jewish Outreach Programs.

“Engaged in an act that is entirely Self-directed, the homosexual is, in effect, having relations with his own image,” wrote Rabbi Aharon Feldman, the head of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, in his article. “He has taken an act that God intended to be one that is creative and engenders bonding, and has, instead, created a parodic mirror image of it that is maximally selfish and self-fulfilling.”

Rabbi Feldman could not be reached for comment on the timing of his piece’s publication, and his co-editor Rabbi Moses Meiselman, the head of Toras Moshe in Jerusalem, said in an e-mail that the “entire project was managed by Rabbi Feldman.”

“The edition of Dialogue was many months in planning and coincided with ongoing events in general and nothing in particular,” he wrote.

However, two days after the lawsuit was announced, the Rabbinical Council of America, a professional association of more than 1,000 Orthodox rabbis, issued a statement repudiating JONAH.

The RCA had already tried to retract a 2004 letter featured on JONAH’s website suggesting rabbis refer their congregants to it, said Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, the RCA’s president. People who had been hurt by their experiences with JONAH reached out to the RCA, which in turn consulted with experts and came to question whether JONAH met its standards for trained mental therapists who abide by the values and ethics of their profession.

“The Torah is very clear that this lifestyle is outside the purview of normative Judaism,” Rabbi Goldin said. “We urge individuals to connect with the Jewish community and connect with rabbis and deal with those issues the best they can. We are against any kind of personal prejudice or acts of violence, God forbid, against any person.”

Orthodox attitudes toward homosexuality are changing in subtle ways, said Miryam Kabakov, co-director of Eshel, the group founded in 2010 that tries to help gay people stay “frum [observant], happy and healthy.”

These shifts, she said, are mostly in attitude and in private interactions between individuals, because a public statement could result in communal censure or pressure.

Still, views like those of Rabbi Feldman’s are making “Aron,” a New York-area man in his 30s who was raised “black-hat” Orthodox, question the fundamentals of Orthodoxy.

He underwent the “typical shidduch process,” going on arranged dates with a view toward marriage and then divorcing after he told his wife that he was gay. Today, he is still Orthodox. He has not told any of the traditional communities he has ties to that he is gay.

Despite his growing frustration with the Orthodox world’s position on homosexuality, it still doesn’t make sense for him to try to create a new place for himself altogether, either.

“It doesn’t make sense because of millenia of halachic norms, and communal norms,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense because I haven’t let go of the idea that the Torah is divine in origin. I may be angry, but it’s hard to turn your back on [that world], especially as a pretty well-educated Jew.”

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SPLC lawsuit against reparative therapy group 'the height of intolerance': Lawyer

By Thaddeus Baklinski

Life Site News - December 20, 2012

NEW JERSEY, December 20, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - Charles LiMandri, the president and chief counsel of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) has announced that he has accepted the role of lead defense counsel for Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) in a precedent-setting lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

JONAH is a Jewish organization that offers assistance to men and women seeking to resolve their sexual conflicts, focusing specifically on unwanted same-sex attractions.

The SPLC filed a lawsuit against JONAH, alleging the group is guilty of “consumer fraud,” because the therapy will fail to change some people’s sexual orientation.

In taking on the case, Charles LiMandri stated, “The SPLC lawsuit is ill-conceived and legally untenable for multiple reasons. It seeks to violate the First Amendment freedoms of speech, religion. and association—not only of JONAH and the other defendants, but also untold numbers of people in need that stand to benefit from their services.”

“It is the height of intolerance and arrogance for the SPLC to dictate to individuals who experience unwanted same sex attraction and who are seeking help, that they are not entitled to receive such help nor support in a way that respects their personal values,” LiMandri stated. “JONAH and the other defendants will be vigorously defended against these baseless claims to protect not only their Constitutional rights, but also the right of self-determination of all those who wish to resolve their unwanted same sex attractions.”

LiMandri pointed out that since its founding more than 12 years ago, JONAH has helped hundreds of people live the lives that they want, consistent with their personal values.

Arthur Goldberg, JONAH’s co-director, has stated that his organization will vigorously defend itself against a lawsuit that he called “without merit,” and “designed to create a chilling effect upon speech and programs that assist people in overcoming unwanted same-sex attractions.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to assist those with unwanted same-sex attractions,” Goldberg said. “There are thousands of people who have overcome or significantly diminished their unwanted same-sex attractions, not only through our programs, but also through other similar programs.”

“As indicated by the publicity surrounding the event, the lawsuit is designed to create a chilling effect on people and organizations that stand for the position that change is possible, a position that is not contradicted by the APA’s latest statements,” Goldberg said.

JONAH’s mission statement states that “because mankind has been endowed by our Creator with a free will, everyone has the capacity to change. Through psychological and spiritual counseling, peer support, and self-empowerment, JONAH seeks to reunify families, to heal the wounds surrounding homosexuality, and to provide hope.”

The FCDF noted that JONAH has never been the target of a lawsuit until now, and this lawsuit is apparently the result of SPLC advertising in the media for people willing to be named as plaintiffs against JONAH.

The SPLC has labeled numerous pro-family organizations “hate groups” for failing their moral objections to homosexuality.

ony Perkins of the Family Research Council called the SPLC’s assertion that reparative therapy is a fraud, because not everyone is “cured, equally “as ridiculous as suing Weight Watchers because they promised you’d lose weight and you didn’t.”

“The only people guilty of fraud are the ones who claim people with same-sex attractions can’t change,” he said.

Mr. LiMandri indicated that the FCDF is teaming up with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to litigate the case, which was filed in New Jersey, with the assistance of Michael Laffey, a highly respected New Jersey attorney who is experienced in freedom of speech and religious liberty cases.

The FCDF is a national public interest law firm that specializes in defending freedom of religion and conscience by providing legal services at the trial level.

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Former APA president: I know of ‘hundreds’ of homosexuals who changed their orientation

By Kirsten Cummings

Life Site News - June 6, 2013

Nicholas Cummings - Former APA President

NEW JERSEY, June 6, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – A renowned psychologist who was a former president of the American Psychological Association (APA) has submitted an affidavit saying that he personally treated over 2,000 homosexuals for various conditions, while his staff counselled thousands more, and he knows of “hundreds” who successfully changed their orientation.

Nicholas Cummings filed the affidavit in support of a motion by JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing) before the New Jersey Superior Court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) accusing the group of “fraud” for offering reparative therapy services.

JONAH is a Jewish organization that offers assistance to men and women seeking to resolve their sexual conflicts, focusing specifically on unwanted same-sex attractions.

The SPLC filed a lawsuit against JONAH in November of 2012, alleging the group is guilty of “consumer fraud” because the therapy is not always successful in changing people’s sexual preferences.

The SPLC argues that sexual orientation is fixed at birth, and therefore cannot be changed with therapy. But attorneys with the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which is representing JONAH, have argued that the medical community is deeply divided on the issue. They submitted sworn affidavits from medical professionals offering evidence that sexual preference is “fluid” and adaptable to outside influences, including therapy

One of these is Cummings, a former APA president and Lifetime Achievement award winner, who was at the forefront of the psychology community’s evolving approach to homosexuality in the face of increasing public recognition of the lifestyle in the late 20^th century.

Wrote Cummings, “I am … a proponent of patient self-determination. I believe and teach that gays and lesbians have the right to be affirmed in their homosexuality and also have the right to seek help in changing their sexual orientation if that is their choice.”

Cummings reports he personally treated over 2,000 people with same-sex attraction, and his staff treated an additional 16,000.

He said that homosexual patients generally sought psychological help for one of three reasons: “to come to grips with their homosexual identity, to resolve relationship issues, or to change their homosexual orientation.”

Cummings wrote that while relatively few patients opted to try and change their sexual preference, those who did were deeply unhappy with their homosexual experiences, citing issues such as “the transient nature of relationships, disgust or guilt feelings about promiscuity, fear of disease,” and “the desire to have a traditional family.”

Of those who did try to change their preference, Cummings said "hundreds" were successful, going on to lead normal heterosexual lives.

Cummings alleged that the real fraud in the case is on the side of the SPLC.

“Contending that all same-sex attraction is an unchangeable or immutable characteristic like race is a distortion of reality,” the expert wrote. “Accusing professionals who provide treatment for fully informed persons seeking to change their sexual orientation of perpetrating a fraud is not accurate. Such a tactic serves only to stigmatize the professional and shame the patient.”

Added Cummings, “A political agenda should not be permitted to prevent gays and lesbians who desire to undertake sexual orientation change efforts from exercising their right to self-determination.”

In their motion to dismiss the case JONAH’s attorneys alleged that “the plaintiffs are well aware that there is no scientific consensus that sexual orientation is fixed and immutable … [O]n the contrary … many studies have confirmed that change is possible.”

“Nevertheless,” the motion continued, “they want this court to declare that asserting that sexual orientation can be changed is an unlawful act … a deception, a fraud, a misrepresentation.”

“In other words, the plaintiffs want to use this Court not only to drive public policy on the deeply divisive issue of [reparative therapy] in a certain direction, but to shut down the debate by making one viewpoint on this issue literally illegal.”

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council called the SPLC’s assertion that reparative therapy is a fraud because not everyone is cured, “as ridiculous as suing Weight Watchers because they promised you’d lose weight and you didn’t.”

“The only people guilty of fraud are the ones who claim people with same-sex attractions can’t change,” he said.

The motion to dismiss the case against JONAH could be heard as early as June 21.

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Gay 'conversion' treatment faces novel court challenges
Gay client sue in N.J. citing 'consumer fraud'

By Cheryl Wetzstein

Washington Times - July 18, 2013

UPDATE: After hearing arguments Friday, Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso, Jr., in Hudson County, ruled that the case against JONAH and its two associates can proceed.

A New Jersey consumer fraud case has opened a new front in the battle over “conversion” therapies that offer counseling to gay patients looking to become straight.

The fraud case involving services offered to four young men who once struggled with their same-sex attractions will be heard Friday. Four gay men and two of the men’s mothers are suing a Jewish nonprofit corporation, saying the gay-to-straight “conversion” sessions were fraudulent and harmful.

Conversion counselors and their supporters say they are offering a legitimate service to willing customers, but the practice has come under sustained attack from gay-rights groups and others who question the scientific rigor and the results of the therapy methods.

The fraud plaintiffs want a jury to revoke the business license of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), declare its services deceptive and false, and order it to repay all the money the plaintiffs spent on therapy sessions, plus other costs.

In the hearing before Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr., in Hudson County, the plaintiffs are offering a novel legal argument that cites New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, and say the case should be allowed to go before a jury, said Sam Wolfe, senior attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, who called the conversion therapy program “bogus.”

Counsel for the defendants said the consumer fraud law is being misused to advance a political agenda to outlaw change therapies, and promises to show evidence that some people can and do “reorient” themselves to heterosexuality.

JONAH was created to help people who want to live in concert with the values of the Jewish Torah, said Charles LiMandri, chief counsel of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund.

The defendants in the case include JONAH, co-founder Arthur Goldberg and JONAH-affiliated counselor Alan Downing.

The lawsuit, first filed in November, is being heard as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, considers whether to sign a bill that outlaws such therapies for minors.

Mr. Christie, who is running for re-election, said through a spokesman in March that he “does not believe in conversion therapy,” but still is weighing whether to sign the bill. Opponents of the bill protested that some of the lurid testimony the New Jersey lawmakers heard about reorientation therapy was completely inaccurate.

The lawsuit contends that JONAH and its top associates “falsely claimed that their services were effective in changing a person’s sexual orientation.”

The plaintiffs paid $60 to $100 an hour for services that led only to depression and emotional harm and did not result in change, the complaint said.

The four men said they also suffered abuse in the JONAH therapy sessions.

Plaintiffs Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger and Chaim Levin said Mr. Downing asked them to partially or fully disrobe in private or in group sessions as part of their months of therapy. Mr. Levin said he was asked to relive past sexual abuse as part of a group session, while the fourth plaintiff, Sheldon Bruck, said he was asked to snap a rubber band on his wrist when he felt same-sex attractions.

The JONAH defendants said the young men’s statements were “sensationalized” and “inaccurate” — and irrelevant, because the consumer fraud law does not apply in this case.

“Is Weight Watchers liable … every time someone signs up for that program but fails to lose weight, or gains it back?” the defense argued in a filing. The attorneys further maintained that the New Jersey court is not in a position to decide a major social controversy, such as whether people can or cannot change their sexual orientation.

People “have a right to seek counseling to live their lives as they choose. It is a matter of self-determination,” Mr. LiMandri said.

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Friday, December 28, 2012

Case of Arthur Abba Goldberg of JONAH

The following will be released later on today

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