Tadhg Cleary

Tadhg Seamus Cleary (b. May 6, 1993) is a rabbi from New Zealand. He was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) in June 2025 and is notable for being the first ever openly homosexual rabbi ordained by an American Orthodox institution.

Early life Cleary grew up in Wellington, New Zealand with his parents, Dr. Jon Cleary, an orthopedic surgeon, and Jennifer (née Sellen), a nurse. Cleary has a brother, Joshua, and a sister, Shoshana.

The Clearys had a loosely religiously affiliated home, sometimes attending a Progressive Jewish synagogue (akin to Reform Judaism in the United States). Cleary was first introduced to greater observance at age 12 as a result of an interaction with a religious mentor while studying for his bar mitzvah. Curiosity led him to investigate further, and he has considered himself Orthodox since 14. By then, Cleary was performing daily religious rituals and observing both Shabbat and kosher laws.

Until Cleary and the yeshiva were contacted by the Forward, neither had planned not to discuss his ordination publicly. In their view, this controversy is not pertinent to Cleary’s qualifications as a rabbi. In an interview, Linzer called Cleary “an enormous talmid chacham,” or Torah scholar, “who is God-fearing, scrupulous in his observance and happens to be gay.” Since news broke on this story, a number of Orthodox institutions have taken a stand on this significant move by YCT, both in favor of more inclusion as well as to demonstrate "concern for the implications this will have on the standards and definitions of Orthodox practice."

Personal life Cleary married on September 7, 2025 in Cortlandt Manor, New York in a religious ceremony that he designed to be "authentic and halachically effective." He lives with his husband in Washington, D.C.