An LGBTQ+ Jewish group surveyed the community over the last two years and found they are experiencing alienation at incredibly high rates — but it didn’t start with October 7th.
By Alexandra Miller
For LGBTQ+ Jews, annual Pride Month celebrations were once a treasured safe space — but not anymore.
“I’ve never felt more excluded in an inclusive space. More than angering me or being demoralizing — it was depressing,” Yuval David said.
Yuval David and Yoav Davis tell Scripps News anecdote after anecdote: Death threats. Physical altercations. Cancelled events. A Brooklyn interfaith pride service cancelled this month at synagogue supportive of Israel.
For Davis, his identities are now duelling.
“Before October 7, I would consider myself first of all gay, then Jewish, then Israeli. And today, post October 7, I feel like I’m first of all Jewish, and then Israeli and then gay,” Davis said. “And the reason is, I believe that a person kind of identifies who he is by the parts within him that are most targeted and most discriminated against. And I feel like today being Jewish and being Israeli is far more controversial and far more dangerous than just being gay.”
Eshel, an LGBTQ+ Jewish group, surveyed the community over the last two years and found they are experiencing alienation at incredibly high rates.
90% of LGBTQ+ Jews surveyed said when they participated in online queer spaces they were either “Kicked out, “Blocked,” “Experienced verbal harassment,” or “Made to feel uncomfortable.”
“People being extremely cruel to each other online. There was a lot of that. There’s also some people in our community were attacked physically, you know, yelled at publicly,” says Miryam Kabakov, who co-founded Eshel.