Hidden Narratives: Unearthing Ancient Jewish Female and Queer Stories

Catalog description

Heterosexual Jewish men have shaped mainstream Jewish tradition as the central characters in the bible and the authors of canonical Jewish texts. Is there a Torah for women or for people of queer experience? In this course, we'll explore the marginalized narratives buried in classic Jewish texts, including the stories of Lilith, David and Jonathan, Beruriah, Rachel (wife of Akiva), and Kalonymus ben Kalonymus. We'll dive into the many questions these stories raise, including: How were these characters responded to by their contemporaries? How has Judaism been impacted by marginalizing these stories? With such a dearth of source material, how can we claim or create an authentic female or queer Judaism?