New York Rabbi Says Gays Can be 'Cured' by Chemical Castration

A rabbi residing in New York, while reacting to an article written by a gay Jew on the religious gay reparative therapy, has claimed that homosexuality can be cured by means of chemical castration.

Chaim Levin, who was thrown out of his Jewish religious school for being gay, wrote an article last week in the Jewish Press describing the horrors of Jewish gay-cure therapy which he claimed were too graphic to be published. It (gay-cure therapy) was probably the most traumatizing experience of my life, he wrote.

Responding to the article, Rabbi Yehuda Levin (not related to Chaim Levin) said that gays should resort to chemicals to stop the urge to act in a forbidden manner, which he claimed was similar to adultery and incest.

I have tremendous sympathy for those challenged by temptations and unkosher desires, the rabbi wrote in Jewish Press, according to a PinkNews report. As you do with cancer, you never stop trying to find a better treatment to cure yourself. If all therapies fail, as a last resort you use chemicals to stop the urge to act in a forbidden manner. (This resolution is ordered by European courts for offenders and it works).Unpleasant, surely; but better than committing adultery, homosexuality or incest, he wrote.

The rabbi claimed that stories about Jewish homosexual suicides due to bullying and discrimination are unsubstantiated and aimed at gaining sympathy.

He said Jewish philosophers had described Amalek, enemies of the Jews, as practitioners of homosexuality.

Responding to the rabbi's comments, Chaim told PinkNews that it is deplorable that people call someone like him a rabbi: It's enough for one gay teen to hear what he says and consider committing suicide. I find it deplorable that people would call him a rabbi. He's a bigot, he's extremely dangerous, hurtful and reckless and it's about time the public started telling him this is not OK.

Rabbi Levin, known for his homophobic attitude, describes Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney a dangerous homosexualist.