When the California Supreme Court issued its historic marriage ruling that same-sex couples may be married in California on May 15, 2008, a virtual "Kol haKavod!" cheer reverberated throughout Jewish LGBT communities around the country. Locally, in the San Francisco Bay Area a professional collective focused on mobilizing around LGBT rights from a professional Jewish lens, aptly named Kol Tzedek (meaning voice of justice in Hebrew) began.

While the initial focus of the coalition was to organize the Jewish community around the marriage equality movement Kol Tzedek continues to work together broadening the scope of their organizational capacities to work comprehensively on a host of other topics including Trans Inclusion.

The founding member organizations of Kol Tzedek are Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA), Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federations (representing both the Greater East Bay and San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties) and Congregation Sha'ar Zahav (CSZ).  members of Kol Tzedek, Rachel Biale, Ruby Cymrot-Wu, Noach Dzmura, Karen Erlichman, Lisa Finkelstein and Rebecca Weiner continue to be involved in the work of Kol Tzedek as new leaders, Susan Lubeck from PJA and Sasha T. Goldberg representing a new organization to the group, Nehirim, bring new perspectives and opportunities to the collective.   

Read our 2010 Kol Tzedek Overview and Covenant document. Below is a collection of newsprint stories, essays, advertisements and brochures that capture the spirit and the work of Kol Tzedek in 2008 and 2009 as it relates to Marriage Equality.