Queer Jewish Culture

Intersections and overlap between Queer and Jewish cultures were prominent within classic Yiddish films and writing and have resurfaced ever since.

The synthesis of the two cultures which has a great tradition in which the outsider is celebrated, also has a darker side, complicated by Antisemitic queering of the Jewish male.

Whether the ‘bearers of modernity’ or ‘the driving force behind American culture’, Queer and Jewish cultures are fascinating in their own right and particularly so when examined together.

Michele Aaron lectures in American and Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham. She has published widely on contemporary film culture, queer cinema and theory, and Jewishness and gender.

She is the author of New Queer Cinema and Spectatorship: The Power of Looking on.

David Shneer is associate professor of history and director of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. His books include Queer Jews, Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture, finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora.

Nathan Abrams is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Bangor University,Wales. He has written and presented widely on Jewish film, history and culture.