Ritual Reconstructed: Challenges to Disconnection, Division and Exclusion in the Jewish LGBTQI Community

Nationally, it is estimated that around 75% of Jews are affiliated to Synagogues. For many Jews religious practise involves an uneasy tension between modernity and belief in civil liberties/human rights; and Torah mandated rejection of non-heteronormativity. This project sets out to engage with LGBTQI Jewish participants to complicate the binary narrative of either observant Jew or someone who identifies as LGBTQI and in so doing explores the nature of community, belonging and community (dis) and (re)connection.

'Ritual Reconstructed' is inter-disciplinary in design, and includes a core of theological and philosophical conceptualisations, wedded to theoretical understanding of the nature and impacts of 'community membership' (and disconnection therefrom) viewed and theorised through innovative arts practices. The findings will then be treated to theological and practice analysis and re-presented as a vehicle for both policy and transferable religious practice development within the Jewish and other faith communities.

Judaism (and by extension Christianity and Islam which share a common root) is a religion in which traditional rituals and practices often marginalise members of the LGBTQI communities as a result of a presumptive heterosexuality. Despite this, religious traditions often play a key role in shaping identities, providing adherents with a set of values, hope and a sense of meaning. For members of minority ethnic groups who have experienced histories of disconnection, discrimination and exclusion and who are still regarded as in some senses 'othered' a sense of ethno-faith based disconnection from 'mainstream' society may also exacerbate a sense of 'difference' and division from other members of the LGBTQI communities. This may manifest as a sense of distance from LGBTQI normative social expectations and cultural values (i.e wishing to spend Friday night in a Jewish cultural/community setting; or tensions around being seen as 'religious' within broadly secular LGBTQI communities) adding to a set of multi-layered disconnections for individuals seeking to balance competing identities and social demands. Emergent progressive Jewish thought and discourse around ritual practice considers that it is possible to 'queer Halakhah' in a way which may indeed not rupture with tradition or be distinct from earlier forms of Rabbinic thought, enabling this project to contemplate non-linear and future oriented approaches to enhancing community well-being and re-connecting LGBTQI Jews to the wider Jewish community. The project will follow LGBTQI participants throughout the ritual cycle engaging with community members as they create and illustrate (on film) the processes of recreating ritual (e.g. LGBTQI Havurah; 'queer Seder'; alternative Purim parties and the incorporation of alternative translations into traditional Haggim (Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashanah) liturgy. The process of recreating ritual will lead to a film, presented in 'chapters', which may be used in educational settings, which will be launched at an end of project event in which philosophers, theologians and LGBTQI participants (some of whom may be members of the rabbinate) will discuss the meaning and process of such reconstructed ritual in recreating interleaved LGBTQI-Jewish identities. In addition, participants will engage with a 'ritual bricolage' project in which personally meaningful ritual objects are (re)viewed and presented through film, story, music or plastic art (in a format to be decided by the participants themselves), culminating in an exhibition which can be toured alongside the film product.

There are a number of anticipated pathways to impact arising from this project (see below). While some will be self evident and emerge during and at the end of this project (e.g. the production of a film/on-line resources and symposia report) and will be clearly measurable (i.e by monitoring website unique 'hits', requests for further information, etc.) it is likely that other impacts will only become more obvious in the months and years ahead. In particular we anticipate slow change in relation to Rabbinic (and wider inter-faith) response to theoretical outputs leading (we anticipate) to a growth in discourse around queering text and LGBTQI/non-binary specific approaches to ritual practice. As such we would expect to measure demonstrable impacts from this piece of work across a number of years (tentatively emergent by the next REF) as the arguments and practices advanced within this collaborative project gain traction. This proposal has from the beginning benefited from specialist community knowledge which is inextricably entwined in the co-production/co-design of the project.

Main beneficiaries will be: LGBTQI Community faith-group members (primarily Jewish but also, following knowledge transfer/inter-faith engagement, members of other faith communities). In addition to the anticipated tangible benefits of participation for individual participants (which will be reviewed via feed-back surveys and analysis of the outputs from the bricolage project e.g pertaining to sense of confidence or increased belonging in 'queer' faith communities) this project will have wider implications in terms of changing practise and opening up dialogue on LGBTQI and ritual involvement. For Jewish (and wider faith-group) members of LGBTQI communities who are not involved in this project, or who may be isolated from community members as a result of location or rejection by their faith community, the availability of resources via the website and ability to contact Knan/ Rainbow Jews (or appropriate faith specific support and advice hubs which may exist or come into being) will also reduce isolation; potentially enhance intra-community cohesion; and increase knowledge of resources and emergent theological thinking. Organised civil society groups (eg international LGBTQI faith groups) will be able to draw upon materials and use the outputs as a way of commencing dialogue with Rainbow Jews/Liberal Judaism and wider faith communities in relation to inclusion/equality matters.

Rabbinate/Wider Clergy will be able to engage with the theological outputs as a way of opening dialogue within their communities; in seminaries/training colleges and amongst themselves, with a view to exploring the inclusiveness or otherwise of faith based ritual and degree of openness to LGBTQI community members/'queer' or alternative approaches to liturgy etc.

Academic (faculty and students) See relevant section of the Je-S form for more detail re impact. Partners in the project have significant international connections (e.g Canada/ South Africa/ America civil society and HEIs) which means that potential exists for subsequent follow-up faith/identity projects.

Policy community (e.g individuals/groups focused on equalities/well-being, including the EHRC) will be able to draw upon the more general discussions/outputs with regard to the implications and impacts of intersectional exclusion of LGBTQI members of minority ethnic/faith communities resulting from heteronormative expectations. It is anticipated that health and wellbeing policy and practice teams may find the data around social isolation and impacts of 'enforced loss/rejection' of some elements of community for 'out' LGBTQI faith group members (as well as information in relation to the impact of potentially competing identities as LGBTQI/member of a faith community) relevant in terms of supporting clients around faith/religious identity.