Jewish Queer Youth (JQY) Executive Director Rachael Fried
Being Jewish with Jonah Platt
Jonah Platt
4.9 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of 30 Minute Mensches, host Jonah Platt sits down with Rachael Fried, the Executive Director of JQY (Jewish Queer Youth). Rachael shares her personal journey from being a closeted Orthodox participant to leading the organization, which now operates a professional center in New York's Times Square with a $2 million budget. JQY serves as a vital mental health nonprofit dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ youth (ages 13–23) from "historically non-accepting communities," specifically those from Orthodox, Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Russian-speaking backgrounds.
The discussion covers the critical safety risks facing these teens, including suicide and homelessness, and the creative "guerrilla marketing" JQY employs to reach youth in insular environments where internet access is restricted. Fried addresses the intersection of queer identity and Halakha (Jewish law), referencing Leviticus 18:22 and the principle of Elu v’Elu to advocate for the healthy coexistence of religious and queer identities. Finally, she highlights JQY’s national expansion through virtual drop-in centers, a mobile app, and a national Jewish queer book club.
Topics Include:
- They discuss the scale of need (potentially hundreds of thousands)
- The episode addresses high-risk factors for queer Jewish youth, including increased rates of suicide, homelessness, and addiction.
- The discussion explores barriers to information for youth using "kosher phones" or restricted internet in ultra-Orthodox communities.
- Rachael explains how religious texts are often used to justify cultural homophobia beyond the literal interpretation of the law.
- The Jewish principle of "Elu v’Elu" (both these and those) is highlighted as a core philosophy for holding both queer and Jewish identities as true.
- Student activism surrounding a queer club at Yeshiva University
- The cultural dimensions of halakha-based rejection
- Getting in-contact with the organization if you aren’t in New York City
Mentioned In The Episode:
Jewish Queer Youth (JQY) Facebook
LGBTQ+ Jewish Demographic Pew Stud
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | People will probably really not like that answer. |
| 0:02.1 | Here it is. |
| 0:02.6 | Queer people aren't welcome in Jewish spaces. Jewish people aren't always welcome in queer spaces. Is it more a cultural thing? Or if this law says you can't be this way, and end a story. We don't ask rabbis for their hechture or like stamp of approval. Sure. We are the only adults in their lives who know that they're even struggling with their identity or |
| 0:21.5 | questioning anything. |
| 0:24.9 | Welcome back to our apparently never-ending series, being Jewish with Jonah Platt, 30-minute |
| 0:31.2 | menses. Same vibe, same tribe, shorter episodes. My guest today has spent the past decade and |
| 0:37.2 | change, creating space for |
| 0:38.7 | queer Jewish teens from traditional Orthodox, Sephardi, and Mizraqi communities to feel safe, |
| 0:44.4 | seen, and celebrated. She's the executive director of JQY, Jewish queer youth, an organization. |
| 0:50.4 | She helped grow from a grassroots initiative to a professionally staffed nonprofit |
| 0:54.9 | with a $2 million budget and a center in New York's Times Square. She's a master of social work, |
| 1:00.0 | a master of fine arts, and a master of fighting bigotry and isolation. Please welcome Rachel |
| 1:05.0 | Fried. Thank you so much. Thank you. I just gave the quick one-sentence version of JQY. Why don't we hear it from the executive |
| 1:14.3 | director herself? Tell me, what is JQI? What's the work that you guys are doing? So we are a mental |
| 1:19.7 | health organization that empowers Jewish queer teens and young adults to live joyful and healthy |
| 1:25.7 | lives. We work specifically with Jewish youth who come from what we call historically non-accepting |
| 1:31.3 | communities, so that usually means orthodox communities or Svarty Mizrahi homes. |
| 1:37.9 | But, you know, right now, unfortunately, there are still a number of different types of |
| 1:42.0 | Jewish communities that are not super queer affirming or accepting. |
| 1:46.5 | So that includes a whole bunch of others, including Russian speaking Jewish homes. |
| 1:50.9 | That's like our target audience. |
| 1:52.9 | And we connect youth to one another and to providers and to resources that they need in order |
... |
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