#orthodox judaism

Orthodox Judaism is not a cult, and if your gut instinct after getting into a disagreement with an Orthodox Jew is to tell them that their opinions don’t matter because they’re in one, you’re an antisemite and one who isn’t very good at arguing at that.

UGH. when the time on your shul’s handout that said maariv & havdala was at 7:30 really meant that they were starting maariv then but that havdala wasn’t actually until 7:37, so you did it early.

LIFNEI EIVER IS A THING.

(Messaged one of the ritual comitte because this needs to not happen. So upset.)

today, the Av Beit Din sat up on his dais.

and he said “we’d like to officially welcome you under the wings of the shechina”.

I’M GOING TO THE MIKVAH!!!!!!!!

xo, future bas Yisroel

tikkunolamorgtfo:

tikkunolamorgtfo:

So, in light of everything that’s been happening with regards to the anti-Semitic fallout from the Chicago Dλke March debacle, I just want to take a moment to address all my fellow Jews who are not members of the LGBTQ+ community to say that, now—more than ever—we really need to step our allyship the fuck up for our fellow LGBTQ+ Yidden. 

I have seen so many heartbreaking posts over the past few days from gay and trans Jews who are being told by the support networks and advocacy organisations that are supposed to be protecting them that they will not be accepted unless they tow the party line in support of CDM, and basically agree to either pass a GoodJew™ loyalty test or completely hide their Jewishness in future. In one of the anti-Semitism discussion groups I’m in on FB a trans woman was told by trans activism group in her city that if she did not support their “explicit solidarity” with the Chicago Dλke March organisers that she was in the wrong place and should find another group. 

So what this means moving forward is that the rest of us, as allies, need to start working twice as hard to make Jewish spaces more welcoming and accessible for LGBTQ+ Jews than ever before. In this landscape of isolation and vitriol, we cannot let anyone get left behind. 

So to all my Jewish LGBTQ+ friends out there: Just tell us what you need. Tell us how you want be supported and uplifted and I will fucking be there. 

❤️  AM YISRAEL CHAI ❤️  

One of mutuals had some thoughts to share in regards to this post. However, they’re not fully out, so I am reposting their words here anonymously on their behalf: 

“when it comes to supporting all LGBT+ Jews, it’d be really great if reform/liberal/conservative/etc. Jews - especially straight members of these communities, but this doesn’t preclude LGBT+ members - could recognise that heavily deriding Orthodox Judaism for its practices and how alienating it is for queer Jews, often just pushed the burden onto Orthodox queer jews. Of course people should be allowed to talk about how Orthodoxy may reject them, especially if they have a background in it and had to leave, no one should be silence. But the perception that Orthodoxy exists and that hurts (for example) Reform queer Jews really shifts the narrative away from actual gay Orthodox Jews. If Orthodoxy is only ever discussed to be denigrated, especially by non-Orthodox Jews who genuinely are a lot more visible on at least jumblr if not general secular spaces, then all you’re doing is making the space between Orthodox queers and other queer Jews even further apart. And of course, a lot of Orthodox Jews are going to be in the closet. And of course we are going to be facing difficulties in our communities. But that’s our stories and narratives. If non-Orthodox Jews don’t make space for us, then we’re being alienated thrice. (In Orthodoxy, in the Jewish community at large, and of course in goyishe LGBT+ spaces)”

To add onto this, I have found an anti-religious climate in many queer Jewish spaces. Asking for accommodations so that I don’t have to write on Shabbat, for example, often marks me as that ‘weird religious Jew’ that makes people uncomfortable; ditto if I mention that I actually go to shul.  While secular and non-halachic religious Judaism are both entirely valid identities, that can be affirmed without diminishing more traditionally religious forms of Judaism and those who find meaning in it. For all the reasons I feel uncomfortable in Orthodox spaces as a queer person, I often feel uncomfortable in liberal spaces as someone who does identify with halachic judaism.

Queer Jews exist in halachic communities. Halachic Judaism has value. Liberal Judaism is not the solution to queerphobia in Orthodox and other traditionally observant Jewish communities. Queer Orthodox Jews have agency over their narratives and should be listened to. And, certainly, if you are facilitating a queer Jewish space (or any Jewish) space and it isn’t possible for someone to observe kashrut and shabbat, please work on that.