Ritual Reconstructed: Challenges to Disconnection, Division and Exclusion in the Jewish LGBTQI Community

在全国范围内，据估计，大约75%的犹太人附属于犹太教会堂。对许多犹太人来说，宗教实践涉及现代性和对公民自由/人权的信仰之间令人不安的紧张关系；而托拉则强制拒绝非异性规范。这个项目旨在与LGBTQI犹太参与者接触，使遵守LGBTQI的犹太人或自认为LGBTQI的人的二元叙事复杂化，并在这样做的过程中探索社区的性质、归属感和社区(分离)和(重新)联系。《重建的仪式》在设计上是跨学科的，包括神学和哲学概念化的核心，致力于通过创新的艺术实践来观察和理论上对‘社区成员身份’(以及与之脱节)的本质和影响的理论理解。这些发现将被用于神学和实践分析，并作为犹太和其他信仰社区内政策和可转移宗教实践发展的工具重新提出。犹太教(以及基督教和伊斯兰教有共同根源的延伸)是一种宗教，在这种宗教中，传统仪式和实践往往由于推定的异性恋而边缘化LGBTQI社区的成员。尽管如此，宗教传统往往在塑造身份认同方面发挥着关键作用，为信徒提供了一套价值观、希望和意义。对于经历过隔绝、歧视和排斥历史的少数民族成员来说，他们在某种意义上仍然被视为“异类”，与“主流”社会基于种族信仰的脱节也可能加剧与LGBTQI社区其他成员的“差异感”和分离感。这可能表现为与LGBTQI规范的社会期望和文化价值观(即希望在犹太文化/社区环境中度过周五晚上；或者在广泛的世俗LGBTQI社区中被视为“宗教”)的疏离感，增加了寻求平衡相互竞争的身份和社会需求的个人的一套多层脱节。新出现的进步犹太思想和围绕仪式实践的话语认为，有可能以一种确实不会与传统决裂或与早期形式的拉比思想截然不同的方式‘使Halakhah变得古怪’，使这个项目能够考虑非线性的和面向未来的方法来增强社区福祉，并重新将LGBTQI犹太人与更广泛的犹太社区联系起来。该项目将在整个仪式周期中跟踪LGBTQI参与者，与社区成员互动，(在胶片上)创建和说明重建仪式的过程(例如LGBTQI Havurah、“酷儿家宴”、另类Purim派对以及将另类翻译纳入传统的Haggim(赎罪日/Rosh Hashanah)礼拜仪式)。重建仪式的过程将导致一部电影，在“章节”中呈现，可用于教育环境，这将在项目活动结束时启动，哲学家、神学家和LGBTQI参与者(其中一些可能是拉比成员)将讨论这种重建仪式的意义和过程，以重建交错的LGBTQI-犹太人身份。此外，参与者还将参与一个“仪式艺术”项目，在这个项目中，对个人有意义的仪式物品通过电影、故事、音乐或造型艺术(形式由参与者自己决定)进行(重新)观看和呈现，最终形成一个可以与电影产品一起参观的展览。

Nationally, it is estimated that around 75% of Jews are affiliated to Synagogues. For many Jews religious practise involves an uneasy tension between modernity and belief in civil liberties/human rights; and Torah mandated rejection of non-heteronormativity. This project sets out to engage with LGBTQI Jewish participants to complicate the binary narrative of either observant Jew or someone who identifies as LGBTQI and in so doing explores the nature of community, belonging and community (dis) and (re)connection.'Ritual Reconstructed' is inter-disciplinary in design, and includes a core of theological and philosophical conceptualisations, wedded to theoretical understanding of the nature and impacts of 'community membership' (and disconnection therefrom) viewed and theorised through innovative arts practices. The findings will then be treated to theological and practice analysis and re-presented as a vehicle for both policy and transferable religious practice development within the Jewish and other faith communities.Judaism (and by extension Christianity and Islam which share a common root) is a religion in which traditional rituals and practices often marginalise members of the LGBTQI communities as a result of a presumptive heterosexuality. Despite this, religious traditions often play a key role in shaping identities, providing adherents with a set of values, hope and a sense of meaning. For members of minority ethnic groups who have experienced histories of disconnection, discrimination and exclusion and who are still regarded as in some senses 'othered' a sense of ethno-faith based disconnection from 'mainstream' society may also exacerbate a sense of 'difference' and division from other members of the LGBTQI communities. This may manifest as a sense of distance from LGBTQI normative social expectations and cultural values (i.e wishing to spend Friday night in a Jewish cultural/community setting; or tensions around being seen as 'religious' within broadly secular LGBTQI communities) adding to a set of multi-layered disconnections for individuals seeking to balance competing identities and social demands. Emergent progressive Jewish thought and discourse around ritual practice considers that it is possible to 'queer Halakhah' in a way which may indeed not rupture with tradition or be distinct from earlier forms of Rabbinic thought, enabling this project to contemplate non-linear and future oriented approaches to enhancing community well-being and re-connecting LGBTQI Jews to the wider Jewish community. The project will follow LGBTQI participants throughout the ritual cycle engaging with community members as they create and illustrate (on film) the processes of recreating ritual (e.g. LGBTQI Havurah; 'queer Seder'; alternative Purim parties and the incorporation of alternative translations into traditional Haggim (Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashanah) liturgy. The process of recreating ritual will lead to a film, presented in 'chapters', which may be used in educational settings, which will be launched at an end of project event in which philosophers, theologians and LGBTQI participants (some of whom may be members of the rabbinate) will discuss the meaning and process of such reconstructed ritual in recreating interleaved LGBTQI-Jewish identities. In addition, participants will engage with a 'ritual bricolage' project in which personally meaningful ritual objects are (re)viewed and presented through film, story, music or plastic art (in a format to be decided by the participants themselves), culminating in an exhibition which can be toured alongside the film product.