I chose to write about the queer theologians, Jo Hirschmann and Elizabeth Wilson, because I appreciate their emphasis on the importance of intersectionality and moving beyond “identity politics.” As someone who was raised in a Christian household, I find their perspective from the viewpoint of Jewish theologians very interesting, but I think their main ideas can be applied to any religion or faith. Their piece from Queer Jews, “Next Year in Freedom! Taking Our Seder to the Streets”, aligned with many of my personal beliefs, but they also challenged and contradicted some of my opinions. In this essay, I will analyze the writing and beliefs of Hirschmann and Wilson. I will also discuss how their beliefs align or do not align with my own.
To begin, …show more content…
They also elaborate on ideas from a couple academic sources. Specifically, they discuss “the connections between anti-communism and homophobia” (269) using the book, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970, by John D’Emilo. Although they do not cite it, this idea of intersectionality, which they discuss quite extensively, originates from work of Kimberle Crenshaw, who explained intersectionality as thus:
Consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection, coming and going in all four directions. Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another… if a Black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination. . . . But it is not always easy to reconstruct an accident: Sometimes the skid marks and the injuries simply indicate that they occurred simultaneously, frustrating efforts to determine which driver caused the harm (Crenshaw …show more content…
First of all, this piece challenged my notion that all Jews are white. While Hirschmann and Wilson do say that a majority of Jews in the United States are white, but they also state that there are Jewish people of color around the world, including Jews who are “Mizrachi, Sephardi, and mixed-race” (260). Queer Jews also challenged my idea of the “Promised Land.” Hirschmann and Wilson talk about how the Promised Land brings with it the idea of colonialism, which they reject. I had never thought of the Promised Land in this way, but when they brought it up it really made me question just how long colonialism has existed in the world and the consequences it has
To begin, …show more content…
They also elaborate on ideas from a couple academic sources. Specifically, they discuss “the connections between anti-communism and homophobia” (269) using the book, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970, by John D’Emilo. Although they do not cite it, this idea of intersectionality, which they discuss quite extensively, originates from work of Kimberle Crenshaw, who explained intersectionality as thus:
Consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection, coming and going in all four directions. Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another… if a Black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination. . . . But it is not always easy to reconstruct an accident: Sometimes the skid marks and the injuries simply indicate that they occurred simultaneously, frustrating efforts to determine which driver caused the harm (Crenshaw …show more content…
First of all, this piece challenged my notion that all Jews are white. While Hirschmann and Wilson do say that a majority of Jews in the United States are white, but they also state that there are Jewish people of color around the world, including Jews who are “Mizrachi, Sephardi, and mixed-race” (260). Queer Jews also challenged my idea of the “Promised Land.” Hirschmann and Wilson talk about how the Promised Land brings with it the idea of colonialism, which they reject. I had never thought of the Promised Land in this way, but when they brought it up it really made me question just how long colonialism has existed in the world and the consequences it has