"Dancing Steps of #WeToo Resistance": Choreography of Masculinity, Sexuality, and Violence on an Israeli Stage.

Israeli masculinity has been researched by diverse disciplines such as sociology, army studies, gender studies, and more. The dominant theme of such research has been to identify Israeli masculinity as heteronormative and aggressive, and usually discusses it via a nationalistic or religious lens, basing its interpretation on macho, militaristic, and heterosexual values. The current study suggests another perspective for exploring Israeli masculinity by examining two dance productions created by male choreographers and performed by male dancers: Beasts by Ido Tadmor (2000) and But the Virgin Was More Available by Javier de Protos (2002). Both performances expose a homosexual dynamic, reclaims feminine symbols, and exposes silenced public issues such as rape perpetuated against men. These pioneer performances thereby challenge the heteronormative constructions of gender identities and sexualities and present a performance of masculinity which opposes hegemonic perceptions, which are based on heterosexual and machoistic values. I conclude that these modern choreographic productions can be considered political cultural acts in the Israeli public sphere that give a voice to gendered discourse otherwise silenced by Israeli society at large.

"Let Us Bless the Twilight": Intersectionality of Traditional Jewish Ritual and Queer Pride in a Reform Congregation in Israel.

Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming the Sabbath) is a traditional Jewish ritual marking the transition between the profane weekday and the holy Shabbat. Reform Jewish communities maintain this practice with certain ritualistic and textual revisions, in order to include gender and sexual categories previously excluded from mainstream traditional Jewish texts and rituals. This ethnographic article analyzes the particular LGBTQ Kabbalat Shabbat. By creating unique rituals to mark phenomena of both oppression and exclusion, on the one hand, and of love and acceptance, on the other, the Reform congregation emerges as a religious safe space. I argue that those rituals dedicated to and constructed by the LGBTQ community function as a performance of affirmation and empower of gender and sexual identities. This egalitarian performance fosters a shared political discourse for promoting the struggle for equal rights, through a new religious practice.