Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing

JONAH or Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing was an American anti-homosexual organisation which attempts to re-orientate gay Jews. It actively promoted the idea that homosexuality can be "mitigated and potentially eliminated" and encourages participation in retreats such as "Journey into Manhood."

The co-directors of JONAH are Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Silodor Berk. Goldberg's 600-page book Light in the Closet is distributed on JONAH's website. The book is described thus:

Methods
In a lawsuit brought by four former attendees of JONAH, a variety of pseudoscientific and abusive methods are described as being used by JONAH:
 * beating up a pillow that is supposed to represent the man's mother with a tennis racket—an approach pioneered by Richard Cohen
 * cuddling the older male counselors (because that isn't gay at all)
 * being required to strip naked in front of older men (nope, totally straight guys)
 * a mock locker room situation where attendees were mocked and abused, being called "homos" and "faggots"

Arthur Goldberg from JONAH claimed that "There are thousands of people who have shed their unwanted same-sex attractions, not only through our programs, but also through other similar programs." Such brilliant claims landed them on the losing side of a $70,000 consumer fraud verdict in New Jersey and in fact got the organization ordered shut down at the end of 2015 by the court.