Keep Your Wives Away from Them
I could not be more excited for this soon-to-be anthology. It’s been posted about here before, but the July 31 deadline for submissions is fast-approaching, so I thought I’d post it again. It is a part of a kind of silence-breaking discourse that is only growing in the era post-Trembling Before God, and these essays will specifically bring out the perspectives of queer women and trans people. These promise to be rich, complex stories.
Here’s the call text:
Call for Submissions:
KEEP YOUR WIVES AWAY FROM THEM:
AN ANTHOLOGY OF WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT ORTHODYKES
Deadline: July 31, 2008
Orthodox Jewish women who are lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer-identified live lives that can often be fraught with discord. But they have also mined the complexities and contradictions that come with these identities as sources for spiritual change, ritual innovation and community building. Keep Your Wives Away From Them is an anthology of professional scholarly essays and personal journalistic pieces that will document the stories of those who have lived in the meeting-ground of Orthodox Judaism and queer desire. This anthology, in calling attention to an otherwise hidden or silent population, will unravel the puzzle of a seemingly impossible identity. It will also document the rich innovations in Jewish and queer life in the communities of Orthodox Jewish lesbian, bisexual and trans people that have developed in around the world over the past 25 years.
Orthodox Jewish LBTQ people just coming out often attempt to alter their sexual orientation through prayer, therapy, and sheer force of will. When these endeavors fail, as they almost always do, a world of questions faces them: Who will be my friends and family? Where will I continue to practice religion, pray, and find the embrace of community? What new ways can I imagine God being manifest in the world? How can I understand the halakha, or Jewish law, that governs my religious life, or must I be an “outlaw” in Jewish life?
Some topics KYW will address:
Life as a LBTQ Orthodox person:
• What are the dilemmas and difficult elements of maintaining simultaneously an Orthodox and LBTQ identity? What are the joys and triumphs?
• Stories negotiating life as an LBTQ Orthodox person in different contexts and communities will show a range of experience: some women have decided to live double lives and their worlds remain divided; others seek full integration in their personal and communal lives.
• What are the obstacles to establishing harmony, and what are the necessary ingredients of doing so?
Family Ties:
• Personal stories may describe shifting filial or sibling relationships and severed or renewed family ties.
• What are the options for women with children?
• What happens to a child’s religious and social identity formation when he or she has a parent who identifies as Orthodox and LBTQ?
Community:
• Have traditional communities integrated LBTQ individuals into their midst?
• What rules must be followed to blend in?
• What are the consequences for an individual and for a community when members are ostracized because of sexual orientation?
• Why do openly LBTQ women often find Orthodox Jewish communities hostile or unaccepting?
• What changes need to be made so that they can be accepted?
• Have communities emerged to support an Orthodox way of life while still allowing an individual to maintain her sexual orientation, social role and gender diversity?
• Who are the heroes in this world?
Trans/Intersex Experiences:
• What are the challenges of being trans/intersex/genderqueer in the religious world and what resources are there for dealing with them?
• How have trans people lived or passed in the Orthodox world?
• What is learned on the other side of the mechitza?
• How do trans and gender non-normative people adapt or relate to Jewish law, which so rigidly distinguishes between male and female obligations?
Ritual and Jewish Law:
• Often discussions of “homosexuality and Judaism” are focused exclusively on men. What are the sources of Jewish law, ritual, and halakha for interpreting classical Jewish teaching on lesbianism?
• What resources within the tradition are available for defining a Jewish sexual ethic amongst traditional LBTQ women, for transforming the practice of niddah, and for composing traditional lesbian wedding ceremonies and other Jewish ritual events?
• How have relationships between religious practice and belief changed as a result of the innovative Jewish contributions of queer and Orthodox women?
• How have religious institutions and communities been transformed?
Requirements for submission:
• The essays in KYW will reflect a multitude of experience and contexts. Essays may draw upon personal experience or may be academic/scholarly in nature; literary non-fiction is also welcome. No poetry or fiction.
• Submissions must be carefully written and edited; personal pieces must be strong in narrative drive, dialogue, and tell a compelling story. Accepted submissions will reflect a diversity of experiences (class, culture and cultural setting, religious belief, educational background, geography, ethnicity, generation, and marital status).
• Essays should be 5-15 pages in length and must include a bio and CV. Must be in Microsoft Word file; double spaced, with margins of an inch on either side; one-inch indent for paragraphs, with footnotes as appropriate.
• If a submission has appeared previously in another publication, the author must obtain permission for reprint and pay any permission fees. The best twenty pieces will be picked and published in KYW by North Atlantic Books and distributed by Random House. Each accepted contributor will receive two copies of the book. Essays should be submitted as soon as possible and no later than July 31, 2008.
• Authors may publish under a pseudonym.
• Essays, short bios, and accompanying CV should be sent to Miryam Kabakov at KeepYourWives {at} gmail(.)com.
About the editor: Miryam Kabakov, LMSW, has been a builder, participant and beneficiary of Orthodyke communities in New York, Jerusalem and Berkeley and an activist in the Jewish LGBTQ world. As a young Orthodox woman she first read Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence and made a non-binding vow to break silence for yeshiva girls everywhere.
