It was a “packed house” on Wednesday as Bet Mishpachah, Washington, D.C.’s LGBTQ+ synagogue, honored Dr. Anthony Fauci with an award for his lifelong devotion to public health and service.
The former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director received the Harvey Milk Chesed Award at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center.
The award is annually given to an individual who has made “outstanding” contributions to both the LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities that exemplify chesed, a core value in Judaism that translates to “lovingkindness.”
“This year, as a part of our 50-year anniversary celebration, we decided to honor Dr. Anthony Fauci not just for his work and helping to build the community, but most importantly for his work in the ’80s and ’90s and beyond with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which, sadly, many of our Bet Mish members lost people to,” Joshua Maxey, Bet Mishpachah’s executive director, told Washington Jewish Week.
Fauci has worked in the fight against HIV/AIDS since the virus’ inception — he admitted his first patient with AIDS to the National Institute of Health Clinical Center in January 1982, according to the NIH’s Fogarty International Center.
In 1984, amid the early days of the epidemic, Fauci became the director of NIAID to have “more of an impact on HIV and infectious diseases,” he told the FIC.
“Bet Mishpachah is honored to have this opportunity to recognize Dr. Fauci for his lifelong commitment to the health and well-being of millions of people around the world,” the congregation’s president, Joseph Pomper, wrote in a press release. “As members of the LGBTQ+ community, we are especially thankful for his courage and dedication in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He stood with us at a time when our community was often shunned and stigmatized.”
Maxey said he and the Bet Mishpachah executive team had written down a list of names of potential honorees for the community’s semicentennial.
“We wanted to make sure that for the 50th anniversary [of Bet Mishpachah], we are not only celebrating our future, but we’re also honoring our past,” Maxey said. “Part of that honoring of the past was looking at our history and looking at the many members who faced HIV and AIDS. When we were telling stories about what it was like, Dr. Fauci just kept coming up.
“Folks wanted to thank him for his service and the research that he has done to support our community.”
In addition to conducting multiple studies and contributing to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — which saved more than 20 million lives worldwide — Fauci befriended LGBTQ+ activists during a time when homophobia was on the rise.
“Dr. Fauci, in his research, was able to highlight not only the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but also what folks living in that time in the LGBTQ community were going through,” Maxey said. “There was a time where it wasn’t really talked about. People didn’t want to talk about it; people … really had no idea what this disease meant.”
He added that Fauci largely dispelled some of the stigma around HIV/AIDS: “Today, times have changed.”
“There is still a slight stigma to it, but because of Dr. Fauci’s research and advocacy, it’s a little less stigmatized,” Maxey said. “Folks can be out and proud and live more insightful lives with HIV or AIDS.”
The topic is a personal one for the Bet Mishpachah community — the congregation’s first president died from HIV/AIDS, and the community lost “several of its members” to AIDS: “It’s very much part of our history.”
After receiving his award, Fauci discussed his time serving seven different United States presidents in a conversation with his longtime friend and colleague Jeff Levi, an emeritus professor and former deputy director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.
“[Fauci] closed off by saying that no matter who was in the White House, he always had to remember that his role wasn’t to basically placate what the president wanted, but it was to be an advisor, to give that sound scientific advice to the president,” Maxey said. “It was a perfect reminder that we all have power and we all have responsibility to fight for equality, fight for justice and continue to fight for a more inclusive world.”
