Whole Selves: Mental Health, Antisemitism & LGBTQIA+ Life at the Crossroads
Join the Jewish Pride Fund for an evening that starts on the rooftop and ends in real conversation. We’ll bless the sukkah together, share a meal, and then sit with a panel of leading voices at the intersection of mental health, antisemitism, and LGBTQIA+ life — because right now, our community needs both joy and honesty in the same room.
6-6:45 pm — Drinks, snacks, and shaking the lulav under the sukkah*
6:45-7 pm — Head downstairs and grab dinner from the buffet
7-8 pm — Welcome from the Pride Fund Chair and panel conversation
8-8:20 pm — Q&A
8:20-8:30 pm — Schmooze and close out the night
Panelists
Joshua Simmons
Joshua Simmons, PsyD, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in San Francisco.
He serves on the Advisory Council of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, the Mental Health Advisory Board of Gesher Community Care, and the National Advisory Council of the Center for Combating Antisemitism. His writing on Jewish identity and antisemitism has appeared in The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Forward, and Algemeiner. He is also co-authoring a forthcoming chapter on post–October 7 queer Jewish trauma for a clinical handbook on Jewish mental health.
Rabbi Eliana Kayelle
Rabbi Eliana Kayelle is the Bay Area Education and Training Manager at Keshet, where they help people connect Jewish texts and tradition to the work of building an equitable future.
Originally from Long Island, NY, Eliana worked as a theater-maker, Jewish educator, and community organizer before relocating to California. Eliana was on the steering committee and ritual team of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Long Island, as well as the Long Island roundtable of Jewish educators for The Jewish Education Project. Ordained in the first cohort of the Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary, Eliana also leads You Gotta Give ‘Em Torah, an adult education project on identity, sexuality, and spirituality, with writing published in Lilith and HeyAlma.
Moderator
Dan Goncher
Dan Goncher became Chair of the Jewish Pride Fund in July 2026 after previously serving as the Social and Events Chair and joining the fund in December 2022. As Chair, he is working to increase the impact of the Pride Fund on the LGBTQ+ Jewish community in the Bay Area and the LGBTQ+ community in Israel. Dan is also a Wexner Heritage Program fellow.
Dan obtained his master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. He is a Partner with Harvey M. Rose Associates, where he manages the company and provides budget, policy, legislative, and performance auditing services to local governments in California and beyond.
*Access to the Federation rooftop requires walking up one flight of stairs. At 6:45 pm, we will convene for dinner and the panel discussion on the 2nd floor, which is accessible by elevator.