How does a community as committed to preserving tradition as Orthodoxy change?
In Orit Avishai’s recent book, Queer Judaism: LGBT Activism and the Remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel, she seeks to answer how these changes came about in the Israeli Orthodox community. Based on her interviews, archival research, and meta-analysis, Avishai describes how one of the keys to their success was that queer activists sought to create space for themselves within Orthodoxy, rather than challenging its core principles. These individuals and families made their lives into activism – by remaining religious and insisting that they belonged in their communities, they left the community no choice but to acknowledge them. Despite the many challenges that they faced trying to navigate what others see as incompatible identities – religious and LGBTQ+ – these activists saw a shift from “marginalization, silencing, and vilification” to “recognition and partial inclusion” within just twenty years.
This is exactly how Eshel fights for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the US. Since Eshel’s start in 2013, we have worked to bring LGBTQ+ people together to draw strength and inspiration from one another, so that we can find a community that allows us to be our full authentic selves, both in our religious and queer identities. Eshel has helped countless LGBTQ+ people to find or create spaces where they can fully belong. And we have seen the number of LGBTQ+ people who choose to make their place in the religious community grow each year. While many challenges still remain, and we have more communities to reach, we are heartened by our ability to open up dialogue in more places than we would have thought possible at Eshel’s beginning.
In her review of Queer Judaism, Tanya Zion-Waldoks comments that “while previous studies often emphasized the struggles of being both religious and queer, Avishai’s work imbues a sense of hope, illustrating how Orthodox queer Israeli Jews have found meaning within their tradition and harness it to influence Judaism, Orthodoxy, and Israeli society.”
Many of us have found meaning, joy, and community through Torah, mitzvot, and our connections to Orthodoxy. We want to continue to be full members of our communities without needing to hide who we are. And when we bring our full selves to our communities, it changes our communities too.
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Join us in Somerville, MA to hear from Professor Orit Avishai about her book!
Sara Singer
Director of Marketing and Communications