Being Queer and Jewish: a Cross-Communal and Cross-National Study of Ethno-Religious Experiences and Divides

Research on LGBTQ+ people's religious identities remains underexplored in Gender and Sexuality
Studies. Focusing on lesbian, bi, and queer (LBQ) Jewish women, this project will examine the relationship
between sexual and religious identities by paying attention to cultural, national, and religious divides. It
will ask the following questions:
- To what extent can a transnational understanding of the relationship between gender, sexuality, and
Jewish identity and practice provide a more nuanced theoretical perspective on contemporary lived
experiences?
- How do secular and religious Jewish LBQ women negotiate, explore, express, experience, and sustain
their religious practices and beliefs?
- How do the divides between Orthodox, progressive, and secular Judaism influence LBQ women in Israel
and England? To what extent are the experiences different?
This project draws on feminist and queer theories of performativity, heteronormativity, and symbolic
interactionism, as well as sociological theories of secularisation/post-secularisation. Data collection will
consist of 50 semi-structured interviews with Israeli and English self-identified LBQ women and
ethnographic fieldwork in Israel and England. Participants will be recruited via LGBTQ+ organisations and
existing contacts. Interviews will be transcribed, fieldnotes organised, and data will be inductively
thematically analysed to allow for an informed social scientific contextualisation of sexual stories.
This research will contribute to theories of sexual stories, sexual identities, sexual boundaries, and
gendered religious scripts in contemporary religious contexts. It will also contribute to a better
understanding of the prejudices and stigmas LBQ women experience.
The researcher will advance her Modern Hebrew language skills in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish
Studies.