Homecoming Rainbows: Queer Jewish Blessings Creating Safe Spaces for LGBTQ+ Individuals

The concept of “home” holds dual significance for LGBTQ+ individuals. It can be a sanctuary, nurturing comfort with identities and aiding in coming out. However, it can also be a place of hostility, reinforcing LGBTQ+ prejudice. Similarly, home preserves family traditions and sustains Jewish identity and practice, but by performing rituals and ceremonies at home, it can also reflect antisemitic attitudes and expressions present in the broader society. This study demonstrates this queer-Jewish juxtapose by presenting a textual analysis of four queer Jewish blessings dedicated to marking and establishing the LGBTQ+ Jewish home. Each of these variations on traditional blessings is characterized by intertextuality with Jewish sources and the appropriation of queer language, symbols, representations, and narratives. The texts present the Reform Jewish liturgy as an agency in the effort to establish the home—both temporary and permanent—as a safe and protected space for LGBTQ+ individuals, with faith and tradition playing a key role in realizing this vision. However, the blessings also reveal heteronormative trends that undermine the radical nature of queerness, such as the sanctification of the institution of marriage. Thus, it appears that the liturgical field may not only be discovered as a harmonious solution in the contemporary encounter between Judaism and queerness but also as a space for the reproduction and preservation of traditional hegemonic structures and perceptions.