Religion Dispatches Magazine Interviews Moshe Shokeid
Religion Dispatches Magazine interviews Moshe Shokeid, author of “A Gay Synagogue in New York.” Shokeid is a mainstream Israeli anthropologist who spent years studying and writing about CBST. Shokeid’s book, an ethnography of CBST, provides an interesting perspective on the congregation, its role within Judaism, and the relationship between religion and sexuality for LGBT Jews.
The interview in Religion Dispatches asks Shokeid poignant questions about CBST and how it’s changed over time. Shokeid talked about how the stigma around homosexuality has changed and about responses to his book.
Shokeid ends the interview with comments on how he hopes his book will impact its readers.
He says, “As for the ‘neutral’ reader who is not necessarily an academic, gay or Jewish, I hope he/she would find my book an intriguing story of men and women, members of a stigmatized minority, who had the vision, the energy, the stamina and the “chutzpah” to create a viable community that survived the tragedy of a devastating plague and succeeded in becoming a visible and legitimate public institution.”
Click here to read the full interview.