Queer Jews

Shneer, David and Aviv, Caryn, editors, "Queer Jews". Routledge, 2002. Being the "Other" Amos Lassen and Literary Pride Although "Queer Jews" was written about four years ago, I revisted it recently while I was writing my review of "Queer Theory and the Jewish Question" and I am glad that I did. The two books compliment each other and although they can be read separately, together they provide a great deal of insight into the psyche of those who are considered to be the "other". "Queer Jews" is a collection of essays dealing with every issue of queer life and how they are affected by the Jewish religion. Judaism is thinly major religion of the world that open welcomes the GLBT community, at least to some degree. Divided into three branches, the reform Jews ordain gay rabbis and perform commitment ceremonies, the Conservative branch has just its policy ad will begin doing the same, but the Orthodox branch, however has not yet seen fit to accept us. So toa high degree, there are gay Jews who have not found ir place. Of late, there has been a lot of research going on dealing with the matter of gay Jews and this book is one of the first and one of the best to undertake the subject. Some of the essays are deeply personal while others are heavily political but they all deal with a minority within a minority, Jewish queers. In the progression of acceptance, the book looks carefully at where Jewish gays are and it also takes a look at the wider society in which we live. Even though there has been a lot of progress made, gay Jews still have a long way to go. The compilation delves into experience and issues which face the queer Jewish community and it is the character of the queer Jew, as well as his determination, that shapes this book. There are essays written by an out Orthodox rabbi as well as from Reformed rabbis, a wonderful study of where a transgender should pray when at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a study of the Jewish educational system and on into the issue of marriage and adoption of children. The use of the word "queer" as an umbrella term for all members of the gay community and the authors show that is used instead of the more popular term gay because it "marks a suspension as something fixed, coherent and natural "and as the authors pull the term tautly over the pages of the book conventional and usual understandings are deconstructed and regular ideas are called into question. There are several essays on activism which has become such an important part of our lives and there is history--the main component of the Jewish religion and what it built upon. This anthology has been needed for a very long time and it does, above all else, show the diversity of the entire queer Jewish community. The editors have done a wonderful job and made me rethink what it means to be both gay and Jewish. With this significant contribution to queer thought, the authors show how necessary inclusiveness, acceptance and unity are to the gay Jewish w

Shneer & Aviv's Queer Jews presents a striking collection of academic thought, personal experience and political views expressed by an interesting and diverse group of contributors who have much to offer on the issues affecting people who identify as a minority group within a minority group - both queer and Jewish. This informed volume bravely assesses where queer & Jewish people currently are in the progression towards acceptance by both their own culture as well as the wider society, whilst providing important pointers for future work that must yet be done. As a non-Jew, I have found this milestone work to be a useful and fascinating insight into understanding the experiences and issues dealt with by friends who are both queer and Jewish. As a gay man, I have been personally challenged and inspired by the strength of character and determination to be accepted as part of a community, as demonstrated throughout the essays in Queer Jews. From out and proud Reformist Rabbis and closeted Orthodox Rabbis to a personal dilemma of whether to pray on the male or female side of the Western Wall; from queer Jewish education to queer Jewish students' first public protest; from the challenges of queer Jewish weddings to queer Jewish parenting and adoption, Queer Jews is a significant positive step in the right direction for inclusiveness, acceptance and unity - a book that should be read by anyone connected with queer and/or Jewish culture. You can't help but be impressed with the great strides that queer Jewish people have made in their communities, whilst also recognising that there are still difficulties ahead to face.

This book is a much-needed anthology representing diverse voices, primarily from young, out [homosexual] Jews today. The essays are challenging and inspiring, and demand that Jewish communities everywhere move beyond tolerance and towards full acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews.

"Queer Jews" deserves its place among the previous Lesbian and Lesbigay Jewish Anthologies, Evelyn Torton-Beck's Nice Jewish Girls (1982, reprint and expanded 1989) and Christi Balka and Andy Rose's Twice Blessed: On Being Lesbian or Gay and Jewish (1989). It not only pays homage to its predecessors (see the Introduction and Balka and Rose's own contribution), it honors them by reflecting some of the changes that have occurred in the past 20 years.This is immediately intimated by the title's use of the word `queer' and further carried through with essays by transgender or non-traditionally gendered Jews. Although `queer,' is used throughout the book mainly as an umbrella term "to include lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people" (14) when one delves more deeply into a number of the individual contributions, one senses the mobilization of the term queer as something that "marks a suspension of identity as something fixed, coherent, and natural"(Jagose, Queer Theory, p. 98). Queerness and Jewishness are thus both expanded--or stretched--within this book's pages. Thus Queer Jews not only calls into question conventional understandings of sexual identity by deconstructing the categories, oppositions and equations that sustain them, it similarly calls into question (many) conventional understandings of `Jewish identity'. This is a good thing.And so it that an essay about a traditional Jewish lesbian wedding is bound together with a cogent questioning of the Reform Movement's recent decision to recognize (sanction?) `same-sex' marriage. And the stories of a non-traditionally gendered Reform Hebrew School teacher, a gay Orthodox rabbi, a closeted Conservative rabbinical student, and a secular `liberationist fem' are similarly bound together in this book. One is also invited--or swept--on the road with the creator (`mother') of the groundbreaking film "Trembling Before G-d", further carried into the Yiddish Film Archives for queer subtexts, and finally (finely) guided through queer viewings of Angels in America and The Producers. Added to this, Queer Jews tra(ns)verses geographical boundaries, including essays about queer Jews in the U.S., Israel, and Canada (the latter of which cites two articles by Jewish lesbians in Australia).Sprinkled throughout the book are essays specifically about activism (though all of the essays, let's be clear, are activism)--in schools, on the streets, at Seders taken to the streets, and at the Kotel (Western Wall). One essay deftly delivers us into the tangled web of anti-semitism, homophobia, classicism, and racism all present in queer Jewish adoptions.And there's history here too--history in the making as well as glimpses of the range of GLBTQ Jewish history over the past decades. Could one ask for more?Emphatically yes. Queer Jews earns its place in the expanding canon--let's just call it torah--of GLBTQ Jews. Among its greatest triumphs may just well be its power to spark more queer Jews to tell their (our

I thank Shneer and Aviv for this wonderful, thought-provoking anthology. As I read the collection I found myself becoming more and more engaged with the essays, the authors themselves, and the sometimes conflicting worlds they described. I learned something from all of the contributors, even those whose politics, understanding of Judaism, or presentation of themselves as "queer" rankled or frustrated me. (Actually, I think I learned the most from the authors who frustrated me!)The editors and all the book's contributors have done an excellent job of capturing the diversity of a new generation of queer Jews and the impact they are having on both the Jewish and queer communities. This book has made me re-examine what being a gay man and a Jew means to me. Bravo to Shneer and Aviv for putting together such a timely and insightful book!