Rabbi Eliyahu’s response was issued following an inquiry posed by musician Daniel Zamir, who posted an account on his Facebook page of how he was refused an aliyah several months ago, due to his sexual orientation.
“On Shabbat morning, during the Shaharit prayers, I approached the gabbay [sexton] and asked for an aliyah,” Zamir wrote. “My grandmother passed away this year, and I am saying Kaddish for her, and wanted to go up to the Torah in her memory. In fact, this has been my custom already for many years, to go up to the Torah every Shabbat morning, but this time, to my surprise, the gabbay refused, mumbling that, ‘It’s all taken, [all the aliyot] are taken already.’
“The Torah reading began,” Zamir continued, “and I assumed that there must be a list of people who want aliyot – people in their year of mourning [for a close family member], people with a birthday that day – but no. I saw the gabbay looking around to find people to give aliyot to and he barely found any takers.” READ MORE
