| UConn Hillel Hosts Queer Jewish Film Series with Local Gay Rights Group |
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| Written by Melissa Jacobson | |||||
| Monday, 20 February 2006 | |||||
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Bridging the gap between Jewish and Queer communities, students at the University of Connecticut are using films to create an open forum discussion on sexual and cultural identities. Shelley Buchbinder and Hemda Ben Yakar from Hillel @ UConn are working with the Rainbow Center and the Towers Social Justice Community to create a Queer Jewish Cinema series devoted to exploring the mixing of Jewish and Queer cultures through film. A controversy over a “Lesbian Quilt,” displayed last year in the front lobby of Hillel @ UConn, initiated a relationship between UConn’s local queer civil rights group and Hillel. Hillel shares a building with a congregation community, and the display of the “Lesbian Quilt,” which addressed a range of issues of gender and equality, made certain individuals uncomfortable. The quilt was taken down for certain periods of time and removed a week earlier than scheduled. The students involved in bringing the quilt to Hillel were offended by this apparent act of censorship, and it was decided that further discussions were necessary. Since last year, Hillel and the Rainbow Center, an organization devoted to addressing the needs of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning individuals and their allies, have continued to work together to create events that allows both communities to join and discuss issues relevant to their lives and their activities on campus. Most recently, the groups have launched Jewcy-Q, a film series dedicated to the on-screen confluence of Jewish and Queer issues. “Culture is fluid and is not often exclusive,” explains Hillel member Shelley Buchbinder. “Judaism has a strict set of behavior guidelines; one is that ‘a man shall not lay with another man.’ This is not the reality for many Jewish men; this law cannot be observed, for doing so is painful. To look at Jewish laws one sees little room for negotiation within other cultures. “This series does not explain Jewish laws position that forbids homosexuality,” Buchbinder says, “But admits its existence in the Jewish community and hopes to open dialog between the Jewish and queers groups on campus” The series’ first film, Yossi and Jagger, an Israeli love story featuring two Israeli officers in southern Lebanon, kicked off the series in early February. The schedule for the rest of the semester includes Trembling Before God on February 27th and Keep Not Silent on March 27th.
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