This course earns .5 credits towards smicha
Course Overview
This 5-hour course on Liturgical and Ritual Approaches for 2SLGBTQIA+ Jews and their loved ones will provide students with an overview of diverse rabbinic and pastoral approaches to liturgy and ritual, as well as explore ways that they can queer Jewish texts, using art, and midrash for worship and lifecycle purposes.
Course Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify several queer-positive approaches to understanding these traditional texts
- Identify approaches to integrating queer midrashic art forms to include in one’s rabbinate
- Identify progressive Jewish responses to 2SLGBTQIA+ contemporary concerns
- Identify community resources and approaches to ritual that can help 2SLGBTQIA+ Jews and their loved ones
- Identify Hebrew linguistic approaches to working with nonbinary people
- Identify several best practices in synagogue ritual, leadership, and worship for inclusion
- Identify common pastoral and clinical concerns facing 2SLGBTQIA+ Jews and their loved ones
- Identify several rabbinic and liturgical approaches to support congregants who identify as Queer and their loved ones
- Articulate one’s own rabbinic approach to dealing with the unique pastoral needs of 2SLGBTQIA+ Jews and their families
Course Readings
Rosenfeld, E. (2023) Young Queer Jews are adding their Voices to the Siddur: https://newvoices.org/2023/09/14/young-queer-jews-are-adding-their-voice-to-the-siddur/
https://www.autostraddle.com/purim-rituals-for-queer-jews/
https://medium.com/@AndyEyeballs/present-a-ritual-for-queer-shame-46433843b83f
https://www.mayyimhayyim.org/why-queer-mikveh/
https://ritualwell.org/ritual/blessing-gratitude-queer-ancestors-community/
https://ritualwell.org/ritual/creating-new-lifecycle-rituals/
https://onetable.org/resources/queering-ritual/
Rabbi Larry Hoffman and Jewish tradition
https://ajhs.org/program-recap-50-years-of-queer-jewish-liturgy/
https://blog.lawrenceahoffman.com/tag/liturgy/
https://collegecommons.huc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Bully-Pulpit-Larry-Hoffman.pdf
https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/439206?lang=bi
Butler, Judith (2013).”Critically Queer” Hall, Donald E.; Jagose, Annamarie (eds.). Critically Queer. Routledge. pp. 18–31
https://www.rabbinikki.com/lifecycle
https://www.multiamory.com/podcast/412-judaism-and-polyamory-with-rabbi-nikki-deblosi
Strassfeld, M. (2010) “Becoming a good boy: A meditation on gendered ritual objects and the challenges of transfeminism”. Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community. Noach Dzmura, ed. North Atlantic Books.
