Every year, diverse Jewish muni around the world observe Tashlich (stg off), a ctomary atonement rual performed the day after Rosh Hashanah. This performative rual is nducted next to a body of water to symbolize atonement and purifitn of one’s ss. Based on multi-sed ethnographic fieldwork two egalarian Jewish ngregatns Tel Aviv and New York Cy, I show how Tashlich performance is nstcted as a polil act to empower genr and sexual inti and experienc, as well as the soc-polil posnaly of LGBTQ Jews var s. By cludg new blsgs, the blowg of the shofar by gay female participants, and by nductg the rual historil and ntemporary queer urban spac, the rabbis and ngregants created new terpretatns of the tradnal ctoms. They exposed their feelgs toward themselv, their muny, and s visibily and prence the cy. The fact that the rual is nducted an open urban public space creat not only differg meangs and perceptns than om the synagogue, but also expos queer polics the ntext of natnal and relig inti. Furthermore, this parative analysis illumat tensns and trajectori of Jewishns and queerns Israel and the US, and sheds light on postmorn tennci ntemporary urban relig muni as a rult of the cln of the LGBTQ muny.
Contents:
- A GAY CHABADNIK, LBIANS WEARG SKULLPS AND HIPSTERS WHO NEVER PRAY: WELE TO LGBTQ BIRTHRIGHT
- BT GAY BARS TEL AVIV
- PRAYER FOR THE SLA AND INJURED AT THE GAY COMMUNY CENTER TEL AVIV
- GAY PARA TENSNS RISE TEL AVIV
- THOANDS OF ISRAELIS PROTT SURROGACY LAW THAT EXCLUS GAY UPL
- FOR GAY PALTIANS, TEL AVIV IS MEC
- IN EYTAN FOX’S ‘SUBLET,’ GAY MEC TEL AVIV SERV AS SET FOR GENERATN CLASH
A GAY CHABADNIK, LBIANS WEARG SKULLPS AND HIPSTERS WHO NEVER PRAY: WELE TO LGBTQ BIRTHRIGHT
As the LGBT pal of the Middle East, Tel Aviv has some of the bt gay bars around! Here are the top 7 gay clubs the cy. * gay synagogue tel aviv *
It’s unlikely he would have kept his ol if he’d known that the Chabad man oppose him was part of an LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr) group of Birthright participants. Yochanan Hizkiyahu participat a Birthright trip for LGBTQ Daniel TchetchikSome 12 hours earlier, Hizkiyahu had been a star attractn at the Tel Aviv Gay Pri Para.
BT GAY BARS TEL AVIV
Israel has been lled the "gay pal of the Middle East," which is no surprise to many of s supporters who have been toutg s outstandg rerd on gay rights for years. * gay synagogue tel aviv *
Others reacted differently, shoutg at him, and two cursed him, but he took stri after beg told that people still remembered that a Haredi man had stabbed and wound three participants the Jesalem Gay Pri Para 2005. Given the openns of the muni, synagogu and rabbis of many of the participants, one might almost thk there were two different religns: the flexible, pluralistic (even “ol, ” some would say) forms of non-Orthodox Judaism domant North Ameri, and the state-sanctned Israeli form of Orthodoxy, which monstrat s anachronism anew each latt stance was the refal of Bar-Ilan Universy to allow an event markg Gay Pri Week on the mp, wh the stutn’s spokman likeng the planned event to a gatherg of pedophil.
)Durg the two days I spent wh the group, I uldn’t help wonrg about the fact that the same Israel that ref to regnize marriag among gays – sce marriag are the purview of the chief rabbate and there are no civil unns – and discrimat agast same-sex upl the allotn of social benefs, and where some MKs are openly homophobic, also v more than 40 gay men and lbians to partake of a ee 10-day Birthright Katzav, Birthright trip for LGBTQ Jews tour lear.
PRAYER FOR THE SLA AND INJURED AT THE GAY COMMUNY CENTER TEL AVIV
This prayer exprs grief and sorrow over the horrific and murro attack at the gay Communy Center Tel Aviv on Augt 1, 2009 and the heightened sense of rponsibily and obligatn that all Jews and muni, across the nomatns, mt share rponse. This tfillah was reced numero synagogu on Shabbat Parshat Ekev * gay synagogue tel aviv *
'Cred: Daniel TchetchikDo the fact that the gays this group are practicg Jews acunt for the first-class treatment they were gettg as visors, as pared wh the mixed msag the state transms to s cizens who are gay? “I always make clear to the members of my groups on the first day that I don’t tend to say a word to them about immigratg to Israel, enlistg the army or donatg to the untry, ” says Shany Katzav the group’s energetic chief tour lear, who works wh gay and straight groups alike. In that se, we n probably le out the mographic threat – Israel’s fear of losg s Jewish majory – as the reason for havg gay groups for the enomic aspect, somethg that another tour lear, David, said while talkg about the social-prott movement of 2011 as the group’s b drove along Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv, where all began, rais the spicn that LGBT buyg power is ed a motivatg factor brgg Jewish gays to are many small bs Israel, which are not part of big chas, he told the group, and if tour participants shop those small bs and general spend money here, they will be helpg the Israeli enomy.
GAY PARA TENSNS RISE TEL AVIV
* gay synagogue tel aviv *
Acrdg to Birthright’s CEO, Gidi Mark, the tours of gays – to date there have been 18 such groups of 40 participants each, out of a total of 430, 000 people who have taken part the project sce s ceptn – are the rult of mand.
THOANDS OF ISRAELIS PROTT SURROGACY LAW THAT EXCLUS GAY UPL
There are groups of bloggers, physicians, journalists, fashn signers, people wh Asperger syndrome, participants nfed to wheelchairs and adds that Birthright is receptive to groundswell iativ: At some pot, someone asked Birthright to anize a group of gays, and that turned out to be a genue need. After all, 30 percent of the project’s budget om the Prime Mister’s Office and the Diaspora Affairs Mistry, now head by Naftali Bent of Habay Hayehudi, a largely homophobic party.
As far as he knows, he adds, Israel is an open society that accepts be, I put to Mark, that the goal of brgg gays on Birthright is to further hasbara (public diplomacy), so that participants will return home and tell others that Israel is gay-iendly? The bottom le, says Mark: Most of the Jews who are on the ont le agast anti-Israeli elements on mp are veterans of the Birthright prototypThe program of Birthright’s gay groups is very siar to that of the project’s other groups: some time the Galilee (Safed, Golan Heights), a b of Tel Aviv (Jaffa, Rothschild Boulevard, Rab Square), Jesalem (Wtern Wall, Yad Vashem, Mount Herzl), sert (Dead Sea, Masada, Kibbutz S Boker).
In the se of the LGBT groups, what’s add is participatn the Gay Pri Para (when their trips overlap wh that), along wh workshops and group discsns on Judaism and qutns of inty – sexual, Jewish and the like – inty issue turns out to be one of the most meangful aspects of the program, owg to the different backgrounds of the participants and their highly dividualistic nnectns to Judaism. “It’s an open synagogue, ” he relat, addg that there is a gay uple and a lbian uple who attend regularly, and he’s ved almost every weekend for a Sabbath meal by one of the all Birthright groups, this one also clud Israeli soldiers who are about to plete their ary service, what is nsired a tremendo perk. Seven soldiers – two women and five men, all of them gay – joed Shany’s group, but by orrs of the IDF Spokperson’s Office, uld not speak on the rerd wh a visn of Birthright’s CEO regard to the soldiers is that they will epen the participants’ experience of Israel, “bee they [the Israelis] raise tough, challengg issu.
FOR GAY PALTIANS, TEL AVIV IS MEC
One of the male soldiers, of Rsian orig, formed a strong bond wh a New York man whose parents are also of Rsian lunch at a falafel stand the Jaffa flea market, the Amerin asked what ’s like to be a gay soldier the IDF.
He said that his un there are so many gays, and also the manr is so gay-iendly, that the latter once urt-martialed a soldier – who had jt arrived on the base and didn’t grasp the suatn – for makg homophobic remarks. There are strict l: No nsumptn of alhol durg schled, official activi – only your ee might have thought that the Gay Pri Para nstuted “ee time, ” durg which the group’s participants would be allowed to drk themselv to a stupor on the Tel Aviv promena together wh beard, mcular German gays. But even that nsisted of a mere three hours the Jaffa flea market, a nice place but void of gay clubs and far om the “real” scene the Rothschild-Allenby-Herzl streets area or the Florent group vented s tratn about alhol at the small, sleepy bar of the Caar Premier hotel, near the Central B Statn Jesalem.
The Birthright gay guys got to the swg of thgs quickly, the girls ls the ncln of the two hours that the group was given to spend on the beach, they gathered ont of a nearby fé and were asked by Shany to unt off, shoutg out their nam stead of numbers. “A ltle more than three years ago, we moved here om Netanya, and we found a void wh regard to everythg nnected to the gay muny, ” says Ma’ayan Gilad, the LGBTQ muny ordator for Harish and the nearby town of Byama-Givat Ada.
IN EYTAN FOX’S ‘SUBLET,’ GAY MEC TEL AVIV SERV AS SET FOR GENERATN CLASH
Israel's Health Mistry Bans LGBTQ 'Conversn Therapy' Fed Up Wh Tel Aviv's 'Liberal Homophobia, ' Queer Scene Thriv Unlikely Place 'An Esrt or a Nymphomaniac? For many years, we didn’t manage to pass almost any legislatn, didn’t manage to make progrs on the natnal polil level, and we realized that the natnal learship wasn’t reflectg the posns that the Israeli public had regardg the gay muny. “In a lot of surveys, we have been seeg a posive public posn toward , like the matters of gay parentg and the fight agast LGBTQ-hatred, ” he ntu.