Trembling Before G-d is a 2001 American documentary film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews trying to reconcile their sexuality with their faith.

It was directed by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, an American who wanted to compare Orthodox Jewish attitudes to homosexuality with his own upbringing as a gay Conservative Jew.

Lamm compared homosexuals to those who attempt suicide (also a sin in Jewish law), arguing that in both cases it would be irresponsible to shun or jail the sinner, but equally wrong for society to give "open or even tacit approval".

The film repeatedly returns to several characters: David is an observant Orthodox Jewish doctor from Los Angeles who has spent a decade trying to reconcile his homosexuality with Judaism.

He has tried numerous forms of "treatment", from eating figs and praying to wearing a rubber band on his wrist to flick whenever he thinks of men, but to no avail.

[7] Israel David Fishman is a 58-year-old New Yorker who decided he could not be gay and Orthodox, and turned his back on his religion, though not before his family forced him into electroshock therapy to try to cure him.

They are shown preparing for Shabbat, and Leah gives advice to a married Hasidic lesbian who is terrified her husband will find out and take away her children.

[16] The spelling of the word G-d in the film's title reflects practice by Orthodox Jews of avoiding writing a name of God, even in English.

[3] It was very warmly received by critics, one describing it: "With its testimony of anguish and joy, Trembling is a tribute to the human spirit, if not to the institutions that seek to define it.

[27] Arthur A. Goldberg, co-director of the Jewish ex-gay organization JONAH, wrote a letter to the editor of The Jerusalem Post lamenting the "film's biased and faulty assumption that same-sex attraction and behavior is irreversible" and that "opposing points of view were, in the reviewer's words, left 'lying on DuBowski's cutting room floor.

'"[28] Orthodox clinical psychologist Adam Jessel commented:[29]The film poignantly captures the torment of those torn between their religious beliefs and their same-sex attractions (SSA).

One cannot help but feel compassion for DuBowski's interviewees who desperately miss the lifestyle, community and close family ties of the Orthodox world.

Implicit in the film is the message that homosexuality is desirable, and that the interviewees' only struggle is having their choices accepted and validated by the community.No Haredi Orthodox group spoke out in favor of Trembling Before G-d.

Rabbi Avi Shafran, the spokesperson for Agudath Israel of America, one of the largest Haredi organizations, criticized the film with an article titled "Dissembling Before G-d".

While it never baldly advocates the case for broader societal acceptance of homosexuality or for the abandonment of elements of the Jewish religious tradition, those causes are subtly evident in the stark, simplistic picture the film presents of sincere, conflicted and victimized men and women confronted by a largely stern and stubborn cadre of rabbis.

For starters, the film refuses to even allow for the possibility that men and women with homosexual predilections might ― with great effort, to be sure ― achieve successful and happy marriages to members of the opposite sex.DuBowski maintains that there is no agenda to Trembling Before G-d "beyond alleviating an immense amount of pain that people are going through", and that Judaism is lovingly portrayed.

[36] Following the success of Trembling before G-d, DuBowski produced a documentary about gay devout Muslims entitled A Jihad for Love.