Queer Yiddish
Yiddish is a queer language. For at least 150 years, Yiddish-speakers have been blending their queerness with their Yiddishness, drawing on this international language’s built-in intersectionality to create theater, music, art, film, and literature that defies old taboos by including our own queer selves. As Sara Felder wrote, “Queer Yiddishkeit gives me permission to go back to the world of my grandparents without leaving myself behind.”
You can expect: a son with two moms, transitioning in the shtetl, a gay Jewish bullfighter, a Yiddish remix of Marlene Dietrich, AIDS activism, a circus lady, drag kings and queens, cruising in 1930s Vilna, sexy sapphic bagels, a ritual spanking, and much more.
Basics
- Format. A multimedia slideshow including numerous video clips and musical examples interspersed with narration and readings from Yiddish literature and the press
- Structure. Chronological from 1877 to the present
- Language. Narration in Yiddish, English, or German. The examples are all Yiddish-related, but I include subtitles and translations for the other versions.
- Duration. The full presentation is roughly 2 hours with an intermission. However, I can shorten it by choosing fewer examples and have versions of varying lengths.
Dates
Upcoming
No dates currently scheduled.
Past
Bookings
To book an in-person or virtual presentation for your organization, venue, conference, or event series, send me a message.
A groysn sh’koyekh to @Jausdschneider for an amazing talk all in Yiddish about queer Yiddishkayt over the centuries shared at Yiddish Sof-Vokh ‘23 in England. He cited @MikhlDarling @eddyportnoy @klezbigal @yiddishstage and many more plays, articles, films, and books pic.twitter.com/x36wE0i5We
— Sarah Biskowitz (@SarahBiskowitz) May 9, 2023
Further Reading
- Top 10 Queerest Moments in the Yiddish Theatre by Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel
- A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969, edited and compiled by Noam Sienna
- A Timeline of Yiddish Drag by the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project
- The Passing Game: Queering American Jewish Culture by Warren Hoffman
- “Queer Yiddishkeit: Practice and Theory” by Jeffrey Shandler
- “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re Yiddish: LGBTQ stories, and silences, in the Forward archives” by Chana Pollack
- Queer Yiddish Stories: a compilation of videos from the Wexler Oral History Project at the Yiddish Book Center
- “Queer Mishpokhe: A Bouquet of Pepi” by Rokhl Kafrissen for her column, Rokhl’s Golden City
Credits
This presentation compiles and builds on the research of numerous scholars and fellow queer Yiddishists who have been gathering these examples themselves and producing their own contemporary queer Yiddish culture. I recommend that anyone interested in the subject seek out and support their work.
I am particularly indebted to the scholarship and knowledge of the following living people:
- Eve Sicular, film scholar, bandleader of Isle of Klezbos, and the mastermind behind the kindred presentation The Yiddish Celluloid Closet
- Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel, the Yiddish singer, songwriter, actor and researcher in Yiddish culture, and author of the fantastic roundup “Top 10 Queerest Moments in the Yiddish Theatre”
- Warren Hoffmann, hyper-perceptive author of The Passing Game: Queering American Jewish Culture
- Jeffrey Shandler, scholar and author of the seminal article “Queer Yiddishkeit: Practice and Theory”
- Chana Pollack, infinitely knowledgeable archivist of the Forward
- Eddy Portnoy, Academic Advisor of YIVO, whose research into the popular Yiddish press unearthed two very important examples
- Irád Ben Isaak, luminous scholar of Yiddish literature and fellow member of Yiddish.Berlin
- David Mazower, Bibliographer and Editorial Director of the Yiddish Book Center, and supernaturally devoted great-grandson of Sholem Asch
- Adam Stepnowski, whose Polish-language brilliance even shines through Google Translate
- Mikhl Yashinsky, who has both written and performed queer Yiddish theater among many talents
- Shane Baker, the actor, translator, playwright, executive director of the Congress for Jewish Culture, and drag queen
- Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, a singer, musician, and probably the first queer Yiddishist I ever met
- Zohar Weiman-Kelman, author of Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women’s Poetry
- Hinde Ena Burstin, feminist, writer, Yiddish educator, and “shande Down Under”
- Morgan (Mishe) Holleb of Glasgow’s one-of-a-kind Pink Peacock café (z”l)
- Jamie Elman & Eli Batalion of the hilarious web series YidLife Crisis
- Yevgeniy Fiks, multidisciplinary conceptual artist and lateral thinker
In addition to all the living legends mentioned above and others I’m forgetting, I’m incredibly grateful to our queer Yiddish ancestors for their bravery and their fierceness.