The Discussion Board: Conversations of a Community

Publisher Marketing: Dr. Isaac Namdar belongs to the Mashadi Jewish community, a congregation of first generation immigrants from Iran. The majority of the community in the New York metropolitan area lives in a very tight-knit area of Great Neck, and their lives center around the synagogue and the communal sense of Judaism. Recently, the news that Dr. Namdar is gay and had married his long-time same-sex partner broke out. In the ensuing few weeks, many people in the community did some soul searching to evaluate their own attitude towards this phenomenon that was never before encountered amongst their ranks. Meanwhile, the leadership and Rabbis of the community issued edicts and took steps to excommunicate Dr. Namdar from his ancestral synagogue. Simultaneously, a Discussion Board feature on Dr. Namdar's wedding website allowed many to express a wide array of views pro and against gay rights and gay marriage. Many in the community used the extreme views forced upon them by the leadership on this specific topic to widen the discussion about the role of religious authority on the lives of individual members. This book is compilation of all the 740 entries that created a most interesting honest, intelligent, and anonymous public debate that you will ever read.