Jewish Studies 253 - Colloquium: Queer Jewish Lives and Culture

What does it mean to be Jewish and queer? What does Jewish tradition have to say about gender and sexuality? How do those ideas continue to impact queer Jewish lives today? How have artists--particularly literary writers and film directors--represented the intersections between Jewishness and queerness? These are just a few of the questions this course explores through Biblical texts and their commentaries, memoirs, biographies, documentaries, films, literature, and theoretically engaged scholarly works. Students also attend a Pride Tour at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. These sources introduce multidisciplinary approaches to the intersections between queerness and Jewishness, queer Jews’ lived experiences, and cultural representations of queer Jews. (E)