LGBTQIA Rights

Content type
Collection

Gluck (b. Hannah Gluckstein)

A self-proclaimed individualist, Gluck painted outside abstract contemporary trends. Instead, Gluck naturalistically painted subjects reflecting her personal life and social circle, making her a unique character in the modern British art scene. Gluck was also proud of her queer, androgynous identity, which she infused into her artwork.

Mónica Gomery Headshot Cropped

Q & A with Poet and Rabbi Mónica Gomery

Sarah Groustra

JWA chats with poet and rabbi Mónica Gomery about her newest poetry collection, Might Kindred

Collage of Jewish queer movie characters on pink background of movie tickets

The Future of Jewish Queer Cinema

Judy Ruden

Like all kinds of media that seek to portray underrepresented perspectives, there is good representation and bad representation.

Topics: Film, LGBTQIA Rights
Gila Axelrod

7 Questions For Gila Axelrod

Sarah Groustra

JWA talks to Gila Axelrod, writer, educator, and editor-in-chief of New Voices.

Episode 92: Beyond the Binary: Making Hebrew More Gender-Inclusive

Hebrew is a very gendered language; every noun in Hebrew is either feminine or masculine. So are pronouns, including “I” and “you.” This makes it nearly impossible to utter a sentence in Hebrew without using gender. So as a Hebrew speaker, how do you refer to a mixed-gender group? What about nonbinary people? In this episode of Can We Talk?, we speak with Michal Shomer, Dafna Eisenreich, and Tal Jenner-Klausner, three activists who are taking Hebrew beyond the gender binary and promoting a Hebrew language that includes people of all genders.

Turkish Coffee and Dates

The Intricacies of Queer, Interfaith Relationships

D. B. Ashkenazi

It was the first time I’d hung out with “other Muslims” and not felt stressed about being Jewish. My girlfriend’s mom recognized me wholly as a Jewish woman and as a woman of her same culture. I had nothing to prove. I was enough.

Collage of Susan Weidman Schneider on green and white checkered background

Like Lilith, Re-channeling My Anger

Noa Karidi

Rather than reacting from a place of anger, the LGBTQIA+ community needs to follow the example of Weidman Schneider to use education in order to change the perception of this bill and of the community

Rachel Finkelstein's The Herstory shows images of the artist, her daughter, her grandmother, and her great grandmother superimposed onto an identification card.

Rachel Finkelstein's Queer Feminist Holocaust Art

Emily-Rose Baker

Through its exploration of gender, sexuality, nationality, and intergenerational trauma, the work of artist Rachel Finkelstein is a reminder of the power that art holds as a form of activism.

Sandra Bernhard

Sandra Bernhard is an American actor, stand-up comedian, singer, memoirist, and talk show host. She has been a high-profile LGBTQ+ presence over a career that has spanned five decades. Bernhard’s work amalgamates the three perspectives that she has said define her: “the feminist, the social commentator, the Jewess.”

Episode 81: Linke Fligl Ends With Love

On a hot, humid day in late August, Nahanni Rous joined a gathering at Linke Fligl, a queer Jewish chicken farm and cultural organizing project in New York's Hudson Valley. (Linke Fligl is a pun—Yiddish for "left wing.") For the past seven years, queer Jews have celebrated holidays, farmed, and built community on this ten-acre, off-the-grid piece of land—but the project is coming to a close. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we walk the land at Linke Fligl, talk to people at the final gathering, and hear from founder Margot Seigle about how the project started and why it's ending.

Illustration of Campers Sitting on a Log Side-By-Side

Social Dates, Gossip, and Exclusion: Combating Toxic Hookup Culture and Heteronormativity at My Jewish Camp

Talia Bloom

I'll admit that my time as a camper was sadly tainted with anxiety and self-deprecation as I tried to navigate the toxic culture, and I currently see the same feelings developing in my young campers.

Comic strip by Alison Bechdel entitled "The Rule" from her series Dykes To Watch Out For

It’s Time to Ditch the Bechdel Test–Or at Least Take It Less Seriously

Catherine Horowitz

We should not need a list of boxes to check off to tell us whether a movie is feminist.

Collage of Illustrated Figures in Front of Asexual and Aromantic Pride Flag Colored Rainbows

What "Be Fruitful and Multiply" Means for Ace and Aro Jews

Talia Bloom

Queerness, asexuality, and aromanticism don't take away our ability to fulfill the mitzvah, "Be fruitful and multiply"; in some ways, they actually open up our world.

Film still from Chantal Akerman's Je Tu Il Elle - two naked women lying down, facing each other

Chantal Akerman’s Queer Jewish Cinema

Emily-Rose Baker

Akerman’s queer, feminist, Jewish films deserve far more attention than they’ve received.

Episode 80: Toxic Hookup Culture in Jewish Youth Groups and Summer Camps

Jewish summer camps and youth movements are a time-honored tradition—tens of thousands of Jewish teens participate. But a group of young Jews is calling out what they say is a “toxic hookup culture” in many of these institutions. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Jen Richler talks with Dahlia Soussan, Ellanora Lerner and Madeline Canfield, three of the founders of Jewish Teens for Empowered Consent, about how they hope to change the culture. Please note, there are sexual references in this episode.

Film still from Kissing Jessica Stein: two women kissing

The Expansive Queerness of "Kissing Jessica Stein"

Emma Breitman

Kissing Jessica Stein flips the heteronormative script, making for a fun watch over 20 years after its release. 

Elana Moscovitch and her daughter

I Taught at a Jewish School Before I Came Out. Twenty Years Later, I Went Back.

Elana Moscovitch

This time around, I could be open about my family and my identity and not worry about derogatory comments.

Episode 73: An Orange Belongs on the Seder Plate Like...

Hard-boiled egg—check. Greens—check. Charoset, maror, shank bone—check. These are the traditional seder plate items that represent the themes of Passover. Many people have also adopted the feminist tradition of including an orange... but what does it symbolize, and how come so many people have the story wrong? In this episode of Can We Talk?, host Nahanni Rous talks with Susannah Heschel, who created the ritual in the 1980s, about the real meaning behind the orange. She also talks with her aunt and cousin, who introduced the orange to the Rous family seder.  

Ennis Bashe and the cover of their book Scheme of Sorcery.

Interview with Disabled, Non-Binary, Jewish Poet and Novelist Ennis Bashe

Jen Richler

JWA talks to Ennis Bashe about how their different identities intersect, and what they want every disabled and able-bodied person to know.

Raven Schwam-Curtis TikTok Still #2

How I Make Black Jews Visible Through the Magic of TikTok

Raven Schwam-Curtis

My TikToks educate, validate, and celebrate Black Jewish identity.

Chagall's Hommage à Apollinaire - woman and man's body merged together

This Chagall Piece Reflects My Nonbinary Gender

Anne Vetter

This Chagall piece invites me to see myself as split and whole in the same moment.

Photo of Riva Lehrer on left and cover of her book Golem Girl on right

Interview with Riva Lehrer, Artist and Author of "Golem Girl"

Jen Richler

JWA talks to artist Riva Lehrer about her recent memoir, Golem Girl, and the way her disabled, queer, and Jewish identities intersect.

Still from bat mitzvah scene of And Just Like That...Includes Charlotte, her husband, children, and officiating rabbi

How 'And Just Like That…' Reflects Bat Mitzvah History

Judith Rosenbaum

In its season finale, And Just Like That...captures how the bat mitzvah has evolved over the last century. 

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