Arthur Abba Goldberg (born 1940) is an American attorney, businessman and leader in the ex-gay movement. He is the former Executive Secretary of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), co-founder and co-director of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), president of Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality (PATH) and principal of the Center for Gender Affirming Processes (CGAP).[1][2][3] All of these groups are devoted to gender affirming therapy and other regimens intended to change the sexual orientation of individuals who experience unwanted same-sex attraction.
Goldberg is also an Honorary Trustee at the Congregation Shearith Israel, a Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in New York.[4]
Contents |
He received his B.A. majoring in Government, with a minor in English from American University with general honors, and a J.D. from Cornell University where he wrote for the Cornell Law Review and was also the editor of the Cornell Law Forum from 1964 to 1965. He was professor at the Connecticut University law school and Deputy Attorney General of New Jersey.[5]
In the 1980s, Goldberg was well known on Wall Street, earning the nicknames "Abba Dabba Do" and "Abba Cadabra" for his investment skills.[6] As Executive Vice President and a major stockholder of Matthews Wright Inc.,[7] he was involved in a financial scandal. He and another man were indicted on "52 counts of bribery, conspiracy and fraud in connection with $2 billion in municipal bonds."[8] He pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States of America. In 1989, Goldberg was fined $100,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison on conviction of fraud.[6]
Details of the fraud convictions resurfaced in February 2010, when an investigative report by Truth Wins Out, a group formed to counter what they consider the ex-gay "myth," and South Florida Gay News revealed that Arthur Abba Goldberg was the same Arthur A. Goldberg of JONAH, a connection that had not yet been made public.[6]
Since the 1960s, Goldberg has been involved in community service and was active in resettling immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.[9] In 1974, he founded the Committee for the Absorption of Soviet Emigres in Jersey City.[10]
While attending New York University, Goldberg's son and the son of Elaine Berk both came out as gay. Goldberg and Berk found that much of the ex-gay movement was strongly associated with charismatic Christianity. Wanting a spiritual alternative for same-sex attracted Jews, they co-founded Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH).[3] In the 1960s, Goldberg traveled to the American South, and now "employs the language of civil rights to argue that people should have the right to change their sexuality."[3]
Goldberg "uses Jewish law texts and scientific study to get to the individual root causes of same sex attraction and help those who are unhappy with their lifestyle reassert their gender identity and change their life."[5][11] In 2008, he wrote Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change.[12] In the book, Goldberg claims that there is no genetic cause of homosexuality, and argues that homosexual orientation can be changed, as performed in reparative therapists .