Findings

The team is currently working on a conference presentation, two forthcoming publications, and a toolkit for congregations and communities (expected completion by summer 2021). Please check back soon or contact jewishlinguisticsstu@uw.edu for updates.

Preliminary findings include many participants sharing that it was easier to “queer” their everyday English than the Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, or Russian they use in religious and cultural activities, due to wider use of grammatical gender in these languages as well as varying levels of proficiency. However, engaging with emergent work and queer historical precedents in Hebrew and other languages is also an important act of reclamation and community formation for queer Jewish people.

Across the board, friendship and community with queer people played a significant role in learning to use queer language, and queer people in leadership were especially prominent.

Cis-heterosexual participants were generally optimistic about Seattle’s progressive identity as a driver of queer development, while queer participants had more reservations and lingering concerns about spaces considered progressive, including not only Seattle but progressive-leaning Jewish communities such as the Reform movement. Queer participants who had lived in other areas outside Seattle, however, also expressed positive feelings toward Seattle culture and the opportunities to develop queer language it presented.