i think a few of the glosses could have helped to engage this better - the gloss of the hashomer hatsa'ir extract, for example, draws a link between ultranationalist zionist movements and german youth movements that fetishised 'aryan' masculinity, but could have taken this a little further in considering some of the supposed contradictions at play there. any real criticism i have is v much a projection of my own politics (and theoretical frameworks that i would not necessarily expect an anthology providing paragraph-long glosses to engage, lol), which, whilst I Am Right, is probably asking too much given what this book was trying to do and for whom.
i went in fully anticipating this to go HARD hard on the zionism, israeli pinkwashing style, and whilst it in no way reflects my own feelings about israel or seems to have a particularly developed understanding of settler colonialism writ large and its relationship to particular queer configurations, it is probably about the best i could hope for. This was better than i was expecting, actually! i think sienna managed to thread the needle of a relationship between queerness and orientalism and the colonial relationship to occupied palestine far more than i thought he was going to. Through an unprecedented examination of the histories of gender and sexuality over two millennia of Jewish life around the world, this book inspires and challenges its readers to create a better future through a purposeful reflection on our past. Spanning almost two millennia and containing translations from more than a dozen languages, Noam Sienna's new book, A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts From the First Century to 1969, collects for the first time more than a hundred sources on the intersection of Jewish and queer identities.Ĭovering poetry, drama, literature, law, midrash, and memoir, this anthology suggests that Jewish texts are not just obstacles to be overcome in the creation of queer Jewish life, but also potential resources waiting to be excavated. In reality, queerness and queer Judaism have been a constant subplot of Jewish history, if only we care to look. For many queer Jews, Jewish tradition seems like a rich tapestry which at best ignores them and at worst rejects them entirely.
0 kommentar(er)
