This is a timeline of LGBT Jewish history, which consists of events at the intersection of Judaism and queer people.

Timeline

1st millennium BCE

4th century BCE c. 486 BCE - Darius the Great adopted the Holiness code of the Book of Leviticus for Persian Jews of the Achaemenid Empire, enacting the first state sanctioned death penalty for male same-sex intercourse.

14th century 1322 CE - The Provençal-Jewish poet Kalonymus ben Kalonymus writes "On Becoming a Woman", expressing lament at and cursing having been born male, referring to their penis as a "defect" (), and wishes to have been created as a woman. 1345 CE - Juce Abolfaça and Simuel Nahamán, two Jews from Puente la Reina, are chained to a tree and burned to death in Olite "because they had committed the sodomitical sin with each other."

15th century

1403 CE - Isaach Salamó, a Jew, is burned in Perpignan (then part of Catalonia) for homosexuality.

16th century

1593 CE - Allegro Orsini, a Jew, is beheaded with Ottaviano Bargellini, a member of a senatorial family, in Bologna for sodomy. Allegro converted to Christianity as Paolo shortly before his death. Allegro's body was later publicly displayed in Piazza Maggiore.

19th century c. 1894-1943 - Jiří Langer, an early writer in Modern Hebrew, included homoerotic themes in his work.

1960s 1965 - Women of Reform Judaism officially supported decriminalization of homosexuality in the United States of America.

1970s 1972 - Beth Chayim Chadashim was founded in 1972 as the first LGBTQ synagogue in the world, and the first LGBT synagogue recognized by the Union for Reform Judaism. 1973 - Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (CBST) was founded in New York. 1975 - Congregation Or Chadash was founded in Chicago. 1977 - Beth Chayim Chadashim became the first LGBT synagogue to own its own building. 1977 - Congregation Sha'ar Zahav was founded in San Francisco. 1977 - The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), which is the Union for Reform Judaism's principal body, adopted a resolution calling for legislation decriminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults, and calling for an end to discrimination against gays and lesbians. The resolution called on Reform Jewish organizations to develop programs to implement this stand. 1978 - Allen Bennett became the first openly gay rabbi in the United States.

1980s 1980 - Lionel Blue became the first British rabbi to come out as gay. 1982 - Congregation Ahavat Shalom was founded in San Francisco, led by Allen Bennett. 1984 - Reconstructionist Judaism became the first Jewish denomination to allow openly gay and lesbian rabbis and cantors. 1986 - Congregation Bet Haverim was founded in Atlanta, GA. 1988 - Stacy Offner became the first openly lesbian rabbi hired by a mainstream Jewish congregation, Shir Tikvah Congregation of Minneapolis (a Reform Jewish congregation).

1990s 1990 - The Union for Reform Judaism announced a national policy declaring lesbian and gay Jews to be full and equal members of the religious community. Its principal body, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), officially endorsed a report of their committee on homosexuality and rabbis. They concluded that "all rabbis, regardless of sexual orientation, be accorded the opportunity to fulfill the sacred vocation that they have chosen" and that "all Jews are religiously equal regardless of their sexual orientation." 1993 - A Reconstructionist Jewish movement Commission issued: Homosexuality and Judaism: The Reconstructionist Position."Becoming a "Kehillah Mekabelet": The Struggles of Transformation" by Roberta Israeloff 1995 - Rabbi Margaret Wenig (who was openly lesbian) had her essay "Truly Welcoming Lesbian and Gay Jews" published in The Jewish Condition: Essays on Contemporary Judaism Honoring Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler; it was the first published argument to the Jewish community on behalf of civil marriage for gay couples. 1996 - The Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a resolution approving same-sex civil marriage. However, this same resolution made a distinction between civil marriages and religious marriages. 1998 - After she won the Eurovision song competition, a serious religious debate was held as to whether, and how, Dana International, a transgender woman, should pray in a synagogue. One rabbinical authority concluded that Dana should be counted in a minyan as a man, but could not sing in front of the community since she was also a woman, according to the rabbi, and that would violate the Orthodox rule of kol isha. 1999 - Steven Greenberg publicly came out as gay in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. As he has a semikhah (rabbinical ordination) from the Orthodox rabbinical seminary of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, he is generally described as the first openly gay Orthodox Jewish rabbi. However, some Orthodox Jews, including many rabbis, dispute his being an Orthodox rabbi.

2000s 2000 - In March 2000 the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued a new resolution stating that "We do hereby resolve that the relationship of a Jewish, same gender couple is worthy of affirmation through appropriate Jewish ritual, and further resolve, that we recognize the diversity of opinions within our ranks on this issue. We support the decision of those who choose to officiate at rituals of union for same-sex couples, and we support the decision of those who do not." 2000 - Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion established the Institute for Judaism, Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity to "educate HUC-JIR students on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues to help them challenge and eliminate homophobia and heterosexism; and to learn tools to be able to transform the communities they encounter into ones that are inclusive and welcoming of LGBT Jews." It was the first institute of its kind in the Jewish world. 2002 - At the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, the Reform rabbi Margaret Wenig (who was openly lesbian) organized the first school-wide seminar at any rabbinical school which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are intersex or transsexual. 2003 - Reuben Zellman became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained in 2010. 2003 - The Union for Reform Judaism retroactively applied its pro-rights policy on gays and lesbians to the bisexual and transgender communities, issuing a resolution titled, "Support for the Inclusion and Acceptance of the Transgender and Bisexual Communities". 2003 - Women of Reform Judaism issued a statement describing their support for human and civil rights and the struggles of the bisexual and transgender communities, and saying, "Women of Reform Judaism accordingly: Calls for civil rights protections from all forms of discrimination against bisexual and transgender individuals; Urges that such legislation allows transgender individuals to be seen under the law as the gender by which they identify; and Calls upon sisterhoods to hold informative programs about the transgender and bisexual communities." 2003 - The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards approved a rabbinic ruling that concluded that sex reassignment surgery (SRS) is permissible as a treatment of gender dysphoria, and that a transgender person's sex status under Jewish law is changed by SRS. 2003 - The Reform rabbi Margaret Wenig (who was openly lesbian) organized the first school-wide seminar at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are intersex or transsexual. 2004 - The Society for Humanistic Judaism issued a resolution supporting "the legal recognition of marriage and divorce between adults of the same sex," and affirming "the value of marriage between any two committed adults with the sense of obligations, responsibilities, and consequences thereof." 2004 - The Association of Humanistic Rabbis issued a pro-LGBT statement titled "In Support of Diverse Sexualities and Gender Identities". 2005 - Eli Cohen became the first openly gay man to be ordained a rabbi by the Jewish Renewal Movement. 2006 - In Conservative Judaism, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly makes the movement's decisions concerning Jewish law. On December 6, 2006, The CJLS adopted three distinct responsa reflecting very different approaches to homosexuality. One responsum substantially liberalized Conservative Judaism's approach including lifting most (but not all) classical prohibitions on homosexual conduct and permitted the blessing of homosexual unions and the ordination of openly gay/lesbian/bisexual clergy. Two others completely retained traditional prohibitions. Under the rules of the Conservative movement, the adoption of multiple opinions permits individual Conservative rabbis, congregations, and rabbinical schools to select which opinion to accept, and hence to choose individually whether to maintain a traditional prohibition on homosexual conduct, or to permit openly gay/lesbian/bisexual unions and clergy. The liberalizing responsum, adopted as a majority opinion by 13 of 25 votes, was authored by Rabbis Elliot N. Dorff, Daniel Nevins, and Avram Reisner. It lifted most restrictions on homosexual conduct and opened the way to the ordination of openly gay/lesbian/bisexual rabbis and cantors and acceptance of homosexual unions, but stopped short of religiously recognizing same-sex marriage. The responsum invoked the Talmudic principle of kavod habriyot, which the authors translated as "human dignity", as authority for this approach. The responsum maintained a prohibition on male-male anal sex, which it described as the sole Biblically prohibited homosexual act. This act remains a yehareg ve'al ya'avor ("die rather than transgress" offense) under the decision. The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University) in Los Angeles had previously stated that it would immediately begin admitting gay/lesbian/bisexual students as soon as the law committee passed a policy that sanctioned such ordination. 2006 - Chaya Gusfield and Rabbi Lori Klein, both ordained in America, became the first openly lesbian rabbis ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement. 2006 - Conservative Judaism decided to allow openly lesbian rabbis and cantors. 2006 - Elliot Kukla, who came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, was the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. 2007 - The Union for Reform Judaism issued a new edition of Kulanu, their resource manual for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion, which for the first time included a blessing sanctifying the sex-change process. It was written by Elliot Kukla at the request of a friend of his who was transgender. 2007 - On March 26, 2007, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York began accepting openly gay/lesbian/bisexual candidates for admission for their Rabbinical program. 2007 - Jalda Rebling, a German woman born in the Netherlands, became the first openly lesbian cantor ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement. 2007 - Rabbi Toba Spitzer became the first openly lesbian or gay person to head a rabbinical assembly when she was elected president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly at the group's annual convention, held in Scottsdale, Arizona. 2007 - Joy Ladin became the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox institution (Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University).