Consolations For the Self-Hating Jew
“Little Jew, you have no / power but the blame / takes the edge off.” A poem for T’sha b’av.
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
“Little Jew, you have no / power but the blame / takes the edge off.” A poem for T’sha b’av.
As Jewish summer camps reopen, one counselor wonders how to make their summer camp more queer-friendly. Jewish Queeries have answers.
Real advice. Real Nice Jewish Queers. Introducing the Jewish Queeries Series.
“If the only thing this podcast accomplishes is to have someone resist saying even one time ‘I’m a bad Jew’… then it will have been a success. Rule #1: there is no such thing as a bad Jew.”
Hillel has a long way to go if it wants to live up to its stated values of inclusion and belonging. I arrived on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) yearning for a Jewish space where I, as a queer Jew, could feel celebrated for all of my identities. I quickly became…
This is part 3 in a series about politics, identity, and Jewish community on college campuses. Click here to view part 1, and here for part 2. Ben Novak came to Northeastern University in 2016 from a Catholic high school in Kingston, Massachusetts. His father was raised Jewish, and his mother converted to Judaism before…
In Houston, Texas, Laverne Cox looked out on an auditorium of eager listeners at the 2014 National Conference on LGBTQ Equality. In her keynote speech, she made a statement that stood out to me. “The scarcity model is a myth,” she said. Cox was talking specifically about trans women of color working together instead of…
A version of this article was published in Times of Israel. Edie Windsor, who passed away last month at 88, will be remembered as many things – a hero, an icon, a trailblazer, and also rarely emphasized, Jewish. Yes, the same Edie Windsor who led the fight in overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at…
As double minorities, LGBT Jews are small in number but have left a profound mark on the course of history. It’s not surprising that Jews have played a monumental role in erasing bigotry in all shapes and forms. Inherent in Jewish identity is a drive for social justice, or tikkun olam, the belief in repairing…
Ohio State University Hillel cut ties last week with an LGBTQ Jewish student organization, and possible homophobia is just the beginning of why it’s a problem. To recap, the split occurred after the group, B’nai Keshet, hosted an event to help queer refugees. They co-sponsored the event with Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish group…
LGBTQ Jews have long been on the front lines, fighting for social justice. We are found on every page of the LGBTQ movement, from Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California, to Avram Finkelstein, who co-founded the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP. We are found on every page…
I saw women and men sitting across from each other at tables and sat on the ground in between to make my presence visible. It was awkward for all of us. Apparently the irony of a heteronormative speed dating event taking place next door to a gay bar was lost on my Hillel. But the…
In the Talmud it says, “Whomever saves a life, it is as if they have saved the entire world.” Yet many observant queer Jews are struggling in the closet and suffer high rates of suicide. According to Hannah Bar-Yosef, a member of the Israeli Interministerial Committee for Suicide (operated under the auspices of the Health…
Unlike many other people I know who grew up in but have since left the Modern Orthodox community, I don’t look back on my childhood religious experiences with sadness. Instead, many of the decisions that I have since made in my religious life have been because of — not despite — having been raised in the…