A Gay Jewish Reading List

Posted on August 31, 2011 by jewishbooks | 15 Comments

Earlier this week, Wayne Hoffman wrote about a funny thing and shared the meaning behind the names of a few of his characters.
When I was first coming out 25 years ago, there were precious few books about being gay and Jewish. Thankfully, that’s not the case today. There are enough to fill whole bookcases. But will anyone who isn’t gay read them? Continue reading here.

This entry was posted in Jewish Books and tagged gay jewish reading list, GLBT, Jewish Books, Jewish Literature, Sweet Like Sugar, Wayne Hoffman. Bookmark the permalink.

15 responses to “A Gay Jewish Reading List”

marjorie ingall | August 31, 2011 at 1:30 pm | Reply

Great list. I love T. Cooper. I also enjoyed The Dyke and the Dybbuk by Ellen Galford — very smart and very funny. I don’t know David Feinberg’s work — I’ll check it out. Thanks, Wayne!!
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D G Myers | September 2, 2011 at 8:43 am | Reply

Although not primarily about the homosexuality of one son and the transvestism of another, Myron Brinig’s “Singermann” (1929) may be the earliest example of an American book “about being gay and Jewish.”
BJ Epstein | September 6, 2011 at 3:45 am | Reply

In my queer literature and theory course at the University of East Anglia in England, I will be teaching Leanne Lieberman’s book Gravity. It’s a YA novel and I think it does a good job of exploring religion and sexuality.
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M Hamlin | September 7, 2011 at 4:13 pm | Reply

The Syracuse University Press has another book of interest to this subject- The Passing Game: Queering Jewish American Culture by Warren Hoffman.
You can find more information about the book at http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu
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Larry Neff | September 12, 2011 at 11:52 am | Reply

Great list! I’d add 2 others: “Geography of the Heart,” Fenton Johnson’s beautifully written novel about a gay Jewish man (who dies of AIDS) & his non-Jewish partner, and “The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon,” Richard Zimler’s superb story of Jews in Portugal shortly after the Inquisition arrived, with a wonderful description of the close friendship between a straight man & a gay man.

For 15 years I was a member of a wonderful Book Group, sponsored by GLBT synagogue Bet Mishpachah in Washington, D.C. — the group read books by, for or about GLBTs and/or Jews, including many on your list.
Scott Reiter | September 12, 2011 at 1:03 pm | Reply

For midrash/historical fiction I would add Queering the Text, a wonderful collection of stories by Andrew Ramer.
For LGBT-themed discussions of the greatest Jewish book, there is the anthology Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, edited by Gregg Drinkwater, Joshua Lesser, and David Shneer.
Jim Wright | September 12, 2011 at 4:19 pm | Reply

Great list. One I would add is “Wrestling With God and Men” by Rabbi Steven Greenberg.
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Amos Lassen | October 25, 2011 at 11:40 pm | Reply

I have been compiling a list of books and a list of movies of interest to the Jewish LGBT community at my website:
http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/