Publication Date: 2011
“Michaelson shows that ‘God versus gay’ is a myth and that the overwhelming majority of our shared religious values favor equality for LGBT people.” —Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun
But Greenberg goes beyond the question of whether homosexuality is biblically acceptable to ask how such relationships can be sacred. In so doing, he draws on a wide array of nonscriptural texts to introduce readers to occasions of same-sex love in Talmudic narratives, medieval Jewish poetry and prose, and traditional Jewish case law literature.
Ultimately, Greenberg argues that Orthodox communities must open up debate, dialogue, and discussion-precisely the foundation upon which Jewish law rests-to truly deal with the issue of homosexual love.This book will appeal to all people of faith struggling to merge their belief in the scriptures with a desire to make their communities more open and accepting to gay and lesbian members.
"His probing readings not only bring fresh insights to these works, but also invite readers to rethink how gender and sexuality are engaged, even as they are disguised or obscured, in modern Jewish culture generally." -- Jeffrey Shandler, author of Adventures in Yiddishland
"While Jewish-American culture of the late 20th century often rejected (or merely ignored) LGBT culture, according to Warren Hoffman the first half of the century was more forgiving. In his new book...[Hoffman] explores queer Jewish identity in 20th century American literature, drama and film." --Philadelphia Gay News
"Hoffman has written a wonderful book that asks important questions about assimilation, identity, gender, and the queering of the Jewish American experience. He digs deeply into the texts and comes up with hiidden truths that are finally brought into the light." -The Gay & Lesbian Review
"A great read for anyone examining Jewish work on page, stage or screen in America - or anyone who ever wondered, deep down, if there wasn't something just a bit...queer about Jewish culture in America." --Lilith Magazine
"This book is highly recommended for scholarly collections, and will also find an audience in public, community, and synagogue libraries serving GLBT patrons."--Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

About the Author:Warren Hoffman is currently serves as the Senior Director of Programming for the Gershman Y in Philadelphia.
In addition to working in the theater community, Warren holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of California-Santa Cruz and has taught at multiple universities.
His first play New Words received a reading at Philadelphia Theatre Workshop and was a finalist for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award in New York. Warren's latest manuscript is a new book entitled The Great White Way:Race and the Broadway Musical.
"My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family" [Hardcover] by Zach Wahls
Book Description:Does the Bible prohibit homosexuality? No, says Bible scholar and activist Jay Michaelson. But not only that: Michaelson also shows that the vast majority of our shared religious traditions support the full equality and dignity of LGBT people. In this accessible, passionate, and provocative book, Michaelson argues for equality, not despite religion but because of it.
Reviews
“God vs. Gay? is a timely and important book in this religious and political moment. Michaelson’s book prepares us, regardless of religious or sexual identity, to delve deeper into our souls, our traditions, and into the truth that religion is in fact a source of liberation.”—Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the largest gay and lesbian synagogue in the world
“Through careful discussions of Jewish and Christian teachings on homosexuality Michaelson masterfully reveals that both religions allow for the full embrace of LGBT persons. This religious-ethical work is illuminating and a must read for anyone who wants to understand the current debate over religion and homosexuality.”—Rabbi David Ellenson, President Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
“Michaelson shows that ‘God versus gay’ is a myth and that the overwhelming majority of our shared religious values favor equality for LGBT people.” —Michael Lerner, editor of TikkunAbout the Author:Jay Michaelson is the author of three books and numerous articles about the intersections of religion, sexuality, and law. A leading activist on behalf of LGBT people in faith communities, Michaelson and his work have been featured in the New York Times and on NPR and CNN.
He is the founder of Nehirim, the leading national provider of community programming for LGBT Jews and their allies, and lives in upstate New York.
Book Description:Wrestling with God and Men is the product of Rabbi Steven Greenberg's ten-year struggle to reconcile his homosexuality with Orthodox Judaism.
Employing traditional rabbinic resources, Greenberg presents readers with surprising biblical interpretations of the creation story, the love of David and Jonathan, the destruction of Sodom, and the condemning verses of Leviticus. But Greenberg goes beyond the question of whether homosexuality is biblically acceptable to ask how such relationships can be sacred. In so doing, he draws on a wide array of nonscriptural texts to introduce readers to occasions of same-sex love in Talmudic narratives, medieval Jewish poetry and prose, and traditional Jewish case law literature.
Ultimately, Greenberg argues that Orthodox communities must open up debate, dialogue, and discussion-precisely the foundation upon which Jewish law rests-to truly deal with the issue of homosexual love.This book will appeal to all people of faith struggling to merge their belief in the scriptures with a desire to make their communities more open and accepting to gay and lesbian members.
Reviews
"[Greenberg] effectively portrays the plight of closeted and openly gay Orthodox Jews who struggle daily with their sexual desires and with the knowledge that the Torah and the rabbis forbid homosexuality."Publishers Weekly
"Wrestling with God and Men—as useful for Christians as it is for Jews—not only brings new and fresh thinking about our current debate over homosexuality but interweaves theology and history with Greenberg's own personal journey in a way that is enlightening, instructive, and inspirational. I heartily recommend this book to Christians who wish to take their Hebrew scriptures seriously and who are willing to examine their own responses to this raging debate."—The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
"The Passing Game: Queering Jewish American Culture" by Warren Hoffman
About the Author:Steven Greenberg (born 1956) is an American rabbi with a rabbinic ordination from the Orthodox rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (RIETS).He is generally described as the first openly gay Orthodox Jewish rabbi,since he publicly disclosed he was gay in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv in 1999 and participated in a 2001 documentary film about homosexual men and women raised in the Orthodox Jewish world.Some Orthodox Jews, including many rabbis, dispute his being an Orthodox rabbi.
Greenberg is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Director of Diversity Project at CLAL – the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and the author of the book “Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition” which received the Koret Jewish Book Award for Philosophy and Thought in 2005. He is listed number 44 in the 2012 The Daily Beast and Newsweek list of “America’s…
Publication Date:2009

Book Description:Tony Kushner’s award-winning epic play Angels in America was remarkable not only for its sensitive engagement of Jewish- American and gay culture but also for bringing these themes to a mainstream audience. While the play represented a watershed in American theater and culture, it belies a hundred years of previous attention to queer Jewish identity in twentieth-century American literature, drama, and film.
In The Passing Game, Warren Hoffman sheds light on this long history, taking up both Yiddish and English narratives that explore the tensions among Jewish identity, queer sexuality, performance, and American citizenship.
With fresh insight Hoffman examines the 1907 Yiddish play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, the cross-dressing films of Yiddish actress Molly Picon, and several short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
He also analyzes the English-language novels The Rise of David Levinsky (Abraham Cahan), Wasteland (Jo Sinclair), and Portnoy’s Complaint (Phillip Roth).Hoffman highlights the ways in which the characters in these canonical texts attempt to "pass" as white, straight,and American in the early and mid–twentieth century. This pioneering work is a welcome contribution to the study of Jewish American literature and culture.
Reviews
Chosen as one of the Best Books of 2009 by The Forward"His probing readings not only bring fresh insights to these works, but also invite readers to rethink how gender and sexuality are engaged, even as they are disguised or obscured, in modern Jewish culture generally." -- Jeffrey Shandler, author of Adventures in Yiddishland
"While Jewish-American culture of the late 20th century often rejected (or merely ignored) LGBT culture, according to Warren Hoffman the first half of the century was more forgiving. In his new book...[Hoffman] explores queer Jewish identity in 20th century American literature, drama and film." --Philadelphia Gay News
"Hoffman has written a wonderful book that asks important questions about assimilation, identity, gender, and the queering of the Jewish American experience. He digs deeply into the texts and comes up with hiidden truths that are finally brought into the light." -The Gay & Lesbian Review
"A great read for anyone examining Jewish work on page, stage or screen in America - or anyone who ever wondered, deep down, if there wasn't something just a bit...queer about Jewish culture in America." --Lilith Magazine
"This book is highly recommended for scholarly collections, and will also find an audience in public, community, and synagogue libraries serving GLBT patrons."--Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

About the Author:Warren Hoffman is currently serves as the Senior Director of Programming for the Gershman Y in Philadelphia.
Prior to that he served as the literary manager and dramaturg for Philadelphia Theatre Company where he dramaturged world premieres by Bill Irwin, Chris Durang, and Terrence McNally.
In New York, Warren was the Associate Artistic Director of Jewish Repertory Theatre in New York where he produced and dramaturged a season of Jewish musicals in concert.
Warren was also a writer and reviewer for TalkinBroadway.com where he covered the Off-Broadway and cabaret scene.
In addition to working in the theater community, Warren holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of California-Santa Cruz and has taught at multiple universities.
He earned rave reviews for his book The Passing Game: Queering Jewish American Culture published by Syracuse University Press. Warren is also a playwright and his play The Last was recently named a recipient of the 2008 Foundation for Jewish Culture Theatre Projects Grant and was a finalist for the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition.
His first play New Words received a reading at Philadelphia Theatre Workshop and was a finalist for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award in New York. Warren's latest manuscript is a new book entitled The Great White Way:Race and the Broadway Musical.
Publication Date: 2012
The nineteen-year-old son of a same-sex couple, Wahls proudly proclaimed, “The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.” Hours later, his speech was posted on YouTube, where it went viral, quickly receiving more than two million views. By the end of the week, everyone knew his name and wanted to hear more from the boy with two moms.
Same-sex marriage will be a major—possibly the defining—issue in this year’s election cycle, and Wahls speaks to that, but also to a broader issue. Sure, he’s handsome and athletic,an environmental engineering student, and an Eagle Scout.Yet, growing up with two moms, he knows what it’s like to feel different and to fear being made fun of or worse.
In the inspirational spirit of It Gets Better edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller,My Two Moms also delivers a reassuring message to same-sex couples, their kids, and anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider: “You are not alone.”
Book Description:On January 31, 2011, Zach Wahls addressed the Iowa House Judiciary Committee in a public forum regarding full marriage equality.
The nineteen-year-old son of a same-sex couple, Wahls proudly proclaimed, “The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.” Hours later, his speech was posted on YouTube, where it went viral, quickly receiving more than two million views. By the end of the week, everyone knew his name and wanted to hear more from the boy with two moms.Same-sex marriage will be a major—possibly the defining—issue in this year’s election cycle, and Wahls speaks to that, but also to a broader issue. Sure, he’s handsome and athletic,an environmental engineering student, and an Eagle Scout.Yet, growing up with two moms, he knows what it’s like to feel different and to fear being made fun of or worse.
In the inspirational spirit of It Gets Better edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller,My Two Moms also delivers a reassuring message to same-sex couples, their kids, and anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider: “You are not alone.”
Reviews
A resounding testament to individuality and the power of family in all forms from the young man who “lit up the Internet”(Ellen DeGeneres)
About the Author:Energized by his new, and astoundingly sudden, emergence as a national advocate for marriage equality, Zach has continued speaking and is now writing My Two Moms about his life growing up with two lesbian parents.
As he told Iowa legislators, he and his sister and their moms are, first and foremost, a family like any other, “eating dinner together, going to church” and defined by “the love we bear for each other.” For college audiences, he offers his insight into the challenges facing the LGBT community and explores the nature of family and what it means for the millennial generation.
In professional settings, his presentation examines the relationship between the business community and LGBT communities and humanizes an issue too often lost in fogs of rhetoric and preconceived notions. He’s been described as someone “beyond his years” with a distinct grace for “moving others beyond theirs.” As Angie Akers, MoveOn Media editor-in-chief, notes about Zach, now and then someone comes along who is so “even-tempered and clearheaded” he can take a subject tied in knots and “just kind of cut right through.”
In professional settings, his presentation examines the relationship between the business community and LGBT communities and humanizes an issue too often lost in fogs of rhetoric and preconceived notions. He’s been described as someone “beyond his years” with a distinct grace for “moving others beyond theirs.” As Angie Akers, MoveOn Media editor-in-chief, notes about Zach, now and then someone comes along who is so “even-tempered and clearheaded” he can take a subject tied in knots and “just kind of cut right through.”
Publication Date: 1988
Book Description:In this Nazi crusade, homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps, were forced to wear pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy.The horror of camp life is described through diaries, previously untranslated documents,and interviews with and letters from survivors,revealing how the anti-homosexual campaign was conducted,the crackpot homophobic fantasies that fueled it,the men who made it possible,and those who were its victims, this chilling book sheds light on a corner of twentieth-century history that has been hidden in the shadows much too long.
Reviews:“A powerful and painful account.”—Martin Gilbert, author of The Holocaust
Book Description:In this Nazi crusade, homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps, were forced to wear pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy.The horror of camp life is described through diaries, previously untranslated documents,and interviews with and letters from survivors,revealing how the anti-homosexual campaign was conducted,the crackpot homophobic fantasies that fueled it,the men who made it possible,and those who were its victims, this chilling book sheds light on a corner of twentieth-century history that has been hidden in the shadows much too long.
“A valuable contribution . . . the lesson that The Pink Triangle elicits from the Holocaust is the realization that we are still haunted by the specters of the Third Reich.”—San Francisco Chronicle
"A strong book, not easy to put down . . . Mr. Plant writes convincingly, keeps clear of sentiment, and lays bare a particularly fearful corner of mid-twentieth century inhumanity."—The Economist
About the Author:Richard Plant(July 22, 1910 – March 3, 1998) a German-American writer.He is said to have written,in addition to the works published under his own name, several detective novels orKriminalromane,on which he collaborated with Dieter Cunz and Oskar Seidlin, and which were published under the collective pen-name of Stefan Brockhoff.
Richard Plant was born Richard Plaut in Frankfurt am Main to the family of the town councillor Theodor Plaut. His grandfather had been the Chief Rabbi of that city. His father was secular, no-religious, and a socialist medical doctor.Upon the accession of the Nazis to power in Germany in 1933 and the zealous enforcement of the provisions of Paragraph 175 of the criminal code against homosexuality,he was obliged to leave Germany for Switzerland in concert with his partner, Oskar Seidlin.
His immediate family did not leave, for "It won't be so bad," was their feeling. Here he obtained a doctorate from the University of Basle (Universität Basel) in 1935 with a dissertation on Arthur Schnitzler, written under the supervision of Franz Zinkernagel (1878–1935) and Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer (1864–1937). Meanwhile, his dad and step-mother left Germany for California. Could an excellent physician begin again, pass exams in the US, in a new language? Some of his patients in Germany were high officials. They returned to the Reich. Shortly after Kristall Nacht, they committed suicide.
His first non-academic book seems to have been a children’s tale, Die Kiste mit dem großen S.,published in 1936.This was followed in 1938 by his Taschenbuch des Films.In the same year, Richard Plaut arrived in the United States, where he eventually adopted the name Richard Plant. Here another children’s book, S.O.S. Geneva, co-authored with Oskar Seidlin, was published in October 1939. His next book had to await the end of the Second World War, when The Dragon in the Forest appeared in 1948. After Richard Plant made it to the US, he also worked for Klaus Mann, son of Thomas, and he did some work for Siegfried Kracauer. He also did some broadcasts for NBC that were related to work for the OSS, the predecessor to the American CIA.
From 1947 to 1973, Plant taught at the City University of New York, and discontinuously also at the New School for Social Research.
Plant,who was gay,is the author of The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War against Homosexuals (1986; German translation, 1991).
Plant died in New York City on March 3, 1998.







No comments:
Post a Comment