Beth Am Congregation brought out the Pride in the Baltimore Jewish Community on a mildly rainy evening on June 13 with its Services in the Park With Pride 2025 event at the Maryland Zoo, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community during Pride month.

The event recently entered its third year, with the first celebration taking place in 2023, and is a combination of Pride celebrations with the annual Services in the Park event in Druid Hill Park that has been a Beth Am summer programming staple for over a decade.

The event also lined up with Pride in the Park, held on June 15, which was part of the greater Baltimore area Pride celebrations.

“When we were planning the year, we just decided that these two programs could be merged to make something really special. We particularly thought that it would be neat, because Pride in the Park was happening this weekend as well. To have the Pride Shabbat be at the Zoo in Druid Hill Park seemed particularly synergistic or cohesive with the rest of the weekend in Baltimore,” said Susannah Kolstad, the director of congregational engagement and programming at Beth Am.

The event drew a healthy list of sponsors from around the Baltimore Jewish community and some interfaith partners, including Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Beth Israel Congregation, Chizuk Amuno Congregation, Hinenu Baltimore, the Jews of Color Mishpacha Project, the Faith Communities of Baltimore With Pride and more.

Kolstad said that Beth Am has wanted the event to be a community-wide offering and has been thrilled to have the support of so many local partners that have allowed the organizers to dream bigger.

“What has happened each year has been an overwhelming number of people all across Baltimore participating, and they’re grateful for us to have a space where they know they can be together and celebrate Pride and feel like their voices are heard. And each year, the iteration has been slightly different to incorporate more and different voices,” Kolstad said.

Kolstad said that the event has grown in the few years since the congregation began holding it, from around 150 to 180 people in past years up to almost 300 people registered in the days leading up to the event.

She added that the event is more accessible than ever because this year organizers were able to hold it at the zoo and make it free to attend, whereas in the past the dinner was a paid attendance event.

The program featured a kickoff that started at 5 p.m. with participants able to enjoy festive activities with facepainting, a bounce house, glitter tattoos, a bubble artist, lawn games, a bring your own picnic dinner and Klei Kodesh Shabbat services that started at 7 p.m. with participants from across the community.

Attendees were also able to listen to live music performed by community members, enjoy free vegan sorbet and partake in crafts like rainbow Hamsa jewelry making with the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

Kolstad said that several different congregations sent clergy members to participate in the services, including Chizuk Amuno, Hinenu and Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh.

Kolstad explained that the program started three years ago when members of the Beth Am young adult program asked her why there wasn’t LGBTQ+ programming. She responded that the synagogue had done it in the past but there wasn’t current demand for it.

She said the young adults told her that they were interested in having more LGBTQ+ programming, and the idea for the Pride Shabbat was eventually formed behind enthusiasm from the clergy.

Kolstad said that the event also gives Beth Am an opportunity to practice the value of b’tzelem Elohim — in the image of the Divine — in creating spaces to welcome and celebrate people for their identities.

Kolstad said that having an event like this was especially important for members of the Beth Am LGBTQ+ community as she said there’s been a feeling of unease among some people in the congregation over this crucial part of their identities and the uncertain future they face.

“We have had some pretty deep conversations with some of our LGBTQ teens and young adults, because especially early in this calendar year, there was a lot of worry about what it was going to mean for them as trans youth, and we really wanted them to know that we were there to support them,” Kolstad said. “And I think that that was not unique to anybody else in the LGBTQ community, and I think that this is an opportunity for people to be in a safe space where they can celebrate and also feel held at the same time.”

bhamelin@midatlanticmedia.com