About

Talk to Me About HIV is an initiative of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah funded by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene through a contract with Public Health Solutions.

Talk to Me About HIV is for rabbis, cantors, and other institutional leaders at Jewish congregations, schools, and community centers throughout New York City. The goal is to help them engage actively with their communities around HIV- and AIDS-related issues. Through the efforts of the CBST Red Ribbon Initiative, CBST was awarded a grant from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and we are proud to offer this program to the leaders of Jewish communities of all five boroughs.

The multi-faceted project comprises several elements:

  • A resource “toolkit” addressing central medical, practical and pastoral issues regarding HIV, including risk, infection, care and treatment, living with HIV and AIDS, aging, and much more. A centerpiece of the project, the toolkit will afterwards be made available online.
  • Video testimonies and conversations with CBST’s rabbis and community members that personalize our community’s storied history and experience with HIV and AIDS and say “Talk to me about HIV.”
  • Lunch-and-learn events held at Jewish seminaries in New York City, whose graduates will soon join the ranks of professional clergy worldwide.

CBST clergy, lay leaders, consultants and staff are involved, using their skills and experience in writing, outreach, and organization. We want to express our profound gratitude to all those involved.

We hope this project will engage multiple generations of the CBST community and far beyond. We hope that our experiences, knowledge, writings, videos, and presence will help to encourage other community leaders of faith to address the important issues required to address the multitude of issues, personal, spiritual, and communal, that will raise awareness, empower our communities to break stigmas and do what feels right, and ultimately to end the epidemic.

Please be in touch with us by emailing talkHIV@cbst.org.