#lgbtq judaism

[whatlieswithintheorchard]

Blessing for Questioning Gender or Sexuality

“A person does not understand statements of Torah unless [one] stumbles on them.”

-Gittin 43a

I feel my struggle without end, without an answer. I feel, at times, that I am alone. Though, I know that is NOT. true. I may not see an end, but I hope to reach it. Or, perhaps, the end I see is simply the road I walk down. I do not know how this will end, but until, or if, it ends, I know that I am, and will always be, my full and whole self.

ברוך אתה הויה ͏רוח הולעם מי שואלת חשב

English Transliteration:

B’ruche ateh Havayah, ruach ha’olam, mi shoelat khoshev

English Translation:

G’d of infinite Oneness, blessed are You, who challenges thought.

[thewoodbine]

PSA: There is no such thing as a "white Jew"

There are Jews who have European backgrounds and *some* of them have benefited from eurocentrism or being white passing, but in moments of crisis or need the social tides that create white privilege have never seen Jewish people as part of that group. Whiteness is a social category which has changed with time and attitudes and, at least for now, it has never and still doesn't include Jewish people.

Continuing to use the term "white Jews" is ignorant at best and harmful at worst. Even converts once converted are othered and can no longer rely on any previous white background to save them if they are identified as Jewish.

[ Non-jews please reblog]

[gay-jewish-bucky]

A high-quality edit of Keshet's Jewish Progress Pride Flag

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

Assume that “most” refers to either the majority of your family or the most important members to you, whatever makes sense for your experience. These options definitely do not encompass every situation, and I’m interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this so please elaborate in tags or reblogs or whatever!

No see results button, goyim just have to wait

[magnetothemagnificent]

Listen, I really do love it when people are like "There are secular LGBT+ Jews!" in response to people talking about the intersection of antisemitism and homophobia.

But you know what?

Observant LGBT+ Jews exist too.

There are LGBT+ Jews who observe Shabbat and keep kosher and dress with Tzniut and they're often the ones experiences the worst of that intersection.

Observant Jews are essentially barred from participating in most LGBTQ+ events because they're largely held on Saturday, especially Pride Parades, which every year are either on Shabbat or Shavuot. LGBTQ+ events hardly ever have kosher options, and I mean *really* kosher options aside from bottled water and bag of chips. Jews deserve to eat proper food too, you know. Observant Jews constantly have to hear jokes about Judaism, hear gentile LGBT+ people appropriate Yiddish while at the same time harass Jews for using their own language.

If you don't include Observant Jews, your inclusion is meaningless.

[nerdykeppie]

It's Sukkot, so it's time for another sukkah video!

[vaspider]

Coming soon to @nerdykeppie ...

[scrumpster]

Jewish Resources (Assorted)

Since my last post seemed to be helpful to a lot of people, I thought I’d make another to share some additional resources. This list includes a bunch of stuff, meant for Jewish people in general. I would definitely encourage you to explore them! There’s a lot of useful stuff here. Goyim are welcome to reblog, just please be respectful if you’re adding tags or comments. Jewish Multiracial Network, an organization for multiracial Jewish families and Jews of Color Sefaria, a free virtual library of Jewish texts Sephardic Studies Digital Library Museum “The SSDC includes key books, archival documents, and audio recordings that illuminate the history, culture, literature, politics, customs, music, and cuisine of Sephardic Jews all expressed in their own language, Ladino.” (from their website) The SMQN, an organization for LGBTQ+ Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews Keshet, a group for LGBTQ+ Jews JQY, a group for LGBTQ+ Jews with a focus on those in Orthodox communities  Queer Jews of Color Resource List (note: this list is way more than just resources, there’s a LOT there) JQ International: “JQ celebrates the lives of LGBTQ+ Jews and their allies by transforming Jewish communities and ensuring inclusion through community building, educational programs, and support and wellness services, promoting the healthy integration of LGBTQ+ and Jewish identities.” (from their website) Jews of Color Initiative, an organization dedicated to teaching about intersectionality in the Jewish community, focuses on research, philanthropy, field building, and community education Nonbinary Hebrew Project: It’s hard to describe, but they’re working to find/create/add suffixes that represent nonbinary genders in Hebrew. If you speak Hebrew/another gendered language, you might know what I mean about gendered suffixes. Jewish Mysticism Reading List  (These are related to our closed practices, goyim should NOT be practicing these things) Ritualwell (you can find prayers and blessings related to specific things here, I personally like that they have blessings related to gender identity)  Guimel, an LGBTQ+ support group for the Jewish Community in Mexico. The site is in Spanish. I’m not a native speaker, but I was still able to read a little bit of it.  SVARA: “SVARA’s mission is to empower queer and trans people to expand Torah and tradition through the spiritual practice of Talmud study.” (From their website) TransTorah is definitely an older website, but there are still some miscellaneous pdfs and resources up on the “Resources” page. Jewish Disabilities Advocates: “The JFS Jewish Disabilities Advocates program was created to raise awareness and further inclusion of people with disabilities within Jewish organizations and the larger Jewish community.” (from their website) Jewish Food Society (recipes, have not spent a lot of time browsing here but maybe I should in the future) Jewish Blind & Disabled, an organization that operates mainly in providing accessible housing and living. Jewish Braille Institute International: “The JBI Library provides individuals who are blind, visually impaired, physically handicapped or reading disabled with books, magazines and special publications of Jewish and general interest in Audio, Large Print and Braille formats.” (from their website) Their services are free!)

[madamepestilence]

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE

FREE PALESTINE

[jacensolodjo]

"I have always believed that in order for LGBTQ Jews to connect with our God, we need to stop shaming LGBTQ Jews. God made us who we are, and we ought to fully acknowledge and celebrate every aspect of our lives. If we are committed to the theological ideal that all people are created b’tzelem Elohim, “in the image of God,” then we have to include gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, and transgender people. God made us all. Just as we are. Full Stop. When we, as LGBTQ Jews, can stop separating our sexuality from our spirituality, we will live fuller, richer, and more meaningful lives. For me, this is an issue of shleimut—“wholeness” or “completeness.” The Jewish LGBTQ person lives in shleimut when she/he/zee does not have to be Jewish in one place and queer in another, but can be all of themselves at every place and every time. We cannot cut off our sexuality any more than we could cut off being Jewish, and if we have to hide any part of ourselves, we are not authentic to our own souls. Our integrity to live in the world is fully realized when we cannot only acknowledge our sexuality, but celebrate it as a gift from God. We are complete without needing to be changed. We are complete and whole and blessed."

-Rabbi Denise L. Eger in Mishkan Ga'avah: Where Pride Dwells

[dianaraven]

The Jewish Asexual Anthology

Hi!

I am working on an anthology of creative nonfiction/“personal” essays by Jewish asexual individuals. I am currently in the phase of collecting pieces, and I’d love to hear from you!

Topics include: -Shomer negiah/tzniut/Jewish cultural expectations -Growing up ace and Jewish in a secular world/in a Jewish community -Stereotypes and tropes - fitting in, breaking out -Alienation from/inclusion in Jewish and queer spaces -Family/relationship pressures, expectations, and navigation -Figuring out you’re ace -Coming out -Ace and ___ (intersectionality with other identities) -Parenting/not parenting -Sexuality/romance, or lack thereof -Ace joy, ace community -Anything else that comes to mind about the ace and jewish experience!

Pieces are ideally between 500-1,500 words, and should be in English (words or phrases in other languages may be used, as long as they are explained or translated). Anonymous pieces or pieces under a pseudonym are allowed!

Due date for a first draft is December 1st, 2023.

If interested, please email me at jewishaceanthology@gmail.com!

Sincerely,

Daphna S.

@jewishaceanthology​

[whatlieswithintheorchard]

Y’ALL!!!! IT’S HERE!!!!

The Trans Halakha Project seeks to curate existing and developing resources that have been created for trans Jews, by trans Jews and engage trans & non-binary people in the creation of specific rituals and blessings. This work is expressed below in Tefillat Trans: Blessings and Rituals for Trans Lives.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

Happy Pride Month! If I see any of you goyishe fucks calling Anne Frank bi, or worse a 'bicon", I will egg your house.

She was a child who was murdered in the Holocaust before she could declare what her sexuality was. We don't know what she would have identified as.

Parts weren't edited out because her father Otto was being malicious, not only would parts that were left out only serve to distract from the message of her diary (as proven by y'all's obsession with these entries), queerness was also still very much illegal. He was protecting his daughter's memory and ensuring the diary focused on the story it desperately needed to tell at the time.

There are so many other historical figures who were openly queer that you can support instead of fuelling your weird obsession with dead Jews.

Let Anne Frank rest.

[sunbeamedskies]

I've seen a lot of troubling antisemitism in the Our Flag Means Death fandom lately regarding Taika Waititi. Please hear me out.

A lot of people want everyone to comment about the Israel/Palestine war. It's understandable. What Palestinian civilians are going through in Gaza is a nightmare that no one deserves. They are overwhelmingly paying the price for Hamas' actions- a group they have no control over and are also harmed by. Thousands have been killed.

After October 7th, Taika signed a letter asking for the Israeli hostages to be released. It did not endorse any specific actions taken by the Israeli government- it was simply in support of the hostages.

But you know what he was immediately accused of?

Supporting genocide. Even though what he signed was about Israeli civilians- including the elderly, disabled, and children- who were being held captive by Hamas.

On October 7th, Jews died in a single day in numbers that hadn't been since the Holocaust. Israel contains half the world's entire Jewish population. The majority of its population are descendants of Jews from middle eastern and north African countries who were forcibly kicked out in violent pogroms and had nowhere else to go. Many are descendants of Holocaust survivors as well.

I think most non-Jews would be astounded at how much the majority of the worldwide Jewish community is still mourning and reeling from October 7th. It triggered a lot of intergenerational trauma in many of us, yet I hear barely any non-Jews talk about it.

And yet you immediately accused Taika, a Jewish man, of supporting genocide just because he didn't support hostages being taken and random civilians being murdered. Do you really think he trusts people not to twist his words if he attempts to talk about Palestine too, when you turned a moment of legitimate pain for members of one of the persecuted groups he's apart of into accusing him of being a genocide-supporting monster?

We Jews not only have to deal with the memory of October 7th, but also with people conflating any support for the hostages with support for the Israeli government. When we say that criticism of Israel can at times get antisemitic, this is the kind of thing we're talking about.

Many of us are simultaneously mourning for Palestine and horrified that a right-wing fascist government that has little care for Palestinian lives has taken over Israel. Innocent lives taken shouldn't justify the killing of other innocent lives, and we are watching it happen, feeling powerless.

And it gets worse, because targeting Taika specifically because he's a person of multiple marginalized identities, when you don't attack white members of the crew nearly as much, is ironically racist.

Unintentional antisemitism and unintentional racism is still antisemitism and racism.

Take a deep breath and please reflect on how you have no idea what it's like to be Jewish right now, and how some of your own antisemitic criticism about his signature has likely contributed to his silence about Palestine. If no matter what he says his words and actions are twisted by so many of his "fans", he might think there's nothing he can say that will do any good.

[wrestlingwithtorah]

Radical Inclusion has lived within Jewish texts from the most ancient of our beloved stories, and has been a value that we've been learning from for centuries. Come join the conversation of the ages, inspired by our texts to make our Jewish Family a safer, more inclusive, kinder, and more loving for every last member of our community.

This text study will explore wisdom from the Torah, Medieval Commentators, and Contemporary Jewish leaders and clergy. This text study is partially inspired by Rabbi Gischner's senior sermon on the topic of inclusion vis-a-vis the priestly garments, as well as other stories from the Torah and from Jewish leaders who inspire him to co-create a more inclusive Jewish community.

Rabbi Josh Gischner (he/him) is passionate about inclusion, accessible Jewish learning, justice, and artistic expressions of Jewish life and was ordained from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in May of 2021. Rabbi Gischner is one of the founders of Wrestling with Torah, and proudly serves as the rabbi educator at Temple Shalom in the DC area. Rabbi Gischner is excited to help you to discover your Torah.

Wrestling with Torah is a radically inclusive online Jewish learning community created by Rabbi Josh Gischner and Rachel Abrams in the Summer of 2020 to serve as a community for Jews and non-Jews, interested in exploring Judaism and their spirituality. WWT is dedicated to radically inclusive and financially accessible Jewish learning. Please email Rabbi Gischner at JoshuaGischner@gmail.com in advance of this session regarding your accessibility needs and to introduce yourself!

[vaspider]

5 days left & less than $75 from unlocking Dr. James Barry!

Let's go! I know we can do this. 💗