Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) is a non-denominational, pluralistic, progressive Jewish congregation located at 130 West 30th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1973 by a small group committed to the idea that one could be both openly gay and deeply Jewish, CBST has grown into the largest LGBTQ synagogue in the world, sustained today by roughly 900 member households and several thousand additional friends and program participants.

CBST describes itself as a spiritual home for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Passionate, provocative, and deeply Jewish, the community engages in spirited debate and activism, rejoicing in diversity, denouncing social injustice, and striving for civil rights for all people. It functions as a house of prayer offering both traditional and liberal services and lifecycle events, a house of learning through adult education and religious school programs, a house of refuge and healing offering pastoral care and community support, and a house of conscience fighting for LGBTQ equality locally, nationally, and internationally.

Programming spans worship, education, and social justice, including the Lehrhaus Judaica Adult Education Program, youth and adult B’nai Mitzvah preparation, the Limmud B’Shabbat religious school for families with children, and active social and cultural groups for congregants in their 20s and 30s. CBST is led by Senior Rabbi Jason Klein, alongside Rabbi Yael Werber and Cantor Sam Rosen, following the 2024 retirement of longtime Senior Rabbi Emerita Sharon Kleinbaum, who led the congregation from 1992.