Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing

Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), formerly Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, was a Jewish non-profit organization which offered conversion therapy and other regimens that purported to change the sexual orientation of LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals. JONAH described itself as "dedicated to educating the world-wide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions". JONAH's leaders disagree with the consensus of mainstream science and the world's major mental health organizations who say that sexual orientation is not a disorder.

On June 25, 2015, in the first-ever trial of conversion therapy in the United States, a New Jersey jury found JONAH guilty of consumer fraud for promising to be able to change its clients' sexual urges and determined its commercial practices to be unconscionable. In a seminal pretrial ruling on February 5, 2015, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter Bariso excluded expert testimony from several leading conversion therapy proponents, Joseph Nicolosi and Christopher Doyle, ruling that their opinions were based on the false premise that homosexuality is a disorder. Bariso wrote that "the theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel but — like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it — instead is outdated and refuted".

On December 18, 2015, Judge Bariso granted a permanent injunction after an agreement by both parties that required JONAH to shut down entirely and prohibited founder Arthur Goldberg and counselor Alan Downing from engaging in any form of conversion therapy in New Jersey. The jury in the case found unanimously on June 25 that by offering services claiming could turn gay people straight, JONAH committed consumer fraud and engaged in unconscionable commercial practices. Under the agreed to injunction and settlement, the defendants will pay the full US$72,400 in damages awarded by the jury to compensate the plaintiffs for the fees they paid to JONAH and for remedial mental health counseling for one plaintiff. The proposed judgment includes a $3.5 million award of legal fees. The plaintiffs agreed to accept an undisclosed portion of that award, but the defendants will be liable for the full amount if they violate the agreement. JONAH is required to shut down all of its operations within 30 days after the order is entered, and its websites and online listservs must be removed. JONAH also will have to liquidate its assets and permanently dissolve as a corporate entity within six months. As part of the settlement, JONAH will not appeal the jury verdict.

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