FRANCE - Law on marriage for all

The French Jewish LGBT organization Beit Haverim (founded in 1977) is actively campaigning for the adoption of the law on marriage for all. We signed the call for the demonstration of December 16, 2012, and we also participate in the march held January 27, 2013. As far as LGBT politics are concerned, our position is the same as that of the “Inter-LGBT” (France), and we are active members. We want full equality of rights. People sometimes think that since we belong to our organization, we are Jews above all, and don’t see ourselves as mere citizens. They also imagine that "Jews" necessarily mean "religious" and "religious" must mean "closed-minded". But we are LGBT activists.

 Regarding the Jewish aspect, it actually involves multiple identities: Jewish cultures differ based on education and background, religious and philosophical beliefs can be radically different. The definition of the Jewish identity can not completely deny the religious heritage, but the secular Jewish identity does exist. This includes the languages ​​of the Jewish people, its history, its literature, its music and artistic creations. On the religious level, it is not a monolithic identity either, because of the great diversity of currents within Judaism. Our organization can not speak on behalf of all Jews homosexuals may not be affiliated with any synagogue in particular, and does not tell the Jewish community what to do or think. The Jewish community, in addition to this, is as complex as we are.

We aim to be a beacon, and to advance the visibility of LGBT Jewish people. Our mission is to celebrate humanistic values. We also intended to express ourselves with our own specificity within the LGBT community, which must also be as mixed as possible. LGBT people come from all walks of life. Jews are about 1% of the total French population. French Jewry is the most important Jewish population in Western Europe today. We claim a tradition that is both pragmatic and intellectually demanding. We are proud of our humanistic philosophical heritage. We are committed to a rich culture, and we encourage all supporters of LGBT rights within the Jewish community to continue their work. With regard to religion, we encourage all streams of Judaism to continue to revise their thinking and perspective. Judaism is a living tradition that requires a constant questioning. We affirm the idea that homosexuality poses no ethical problem, and in the past decades, many Jews have shared this view. We disclaim the cliché of a conflict between the Jewish identity of a woman or a man with his identity and sexual orientation.

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Gay Jewish activist to head Arab institute

The French government has appointed Jack Lang, a campaigner for gay rights whose Jewish father is a Holocaust survivor, to head the Arab World Institute.

Lang, 73, of the Socialist Party, was named Jan. 25 as president of the prestigious cultural institution, which France runs jointly with 22 Arab countries. He served a decade as the education minister in France starting in 1981.

The institute, which is dedicated to promoting and exchanging information and cultural values of the Arab world, was founded in 1980 by the French government and 18 Arab countries, many of which regard homosexuality as a crime.

Lang, 73, was born to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father who survived World War II in hiding, according to French genealogist Alain Garric. Lang has a Jewish wife, Monique Buczynski, according to Garric.

Lang and his daughter, the well-known actress Valerie Lang, have spoken out recently in favor of allowing civil marriage for gay couples in France.

Unmasked

Has Purim replaced Passover as the best holiday vehicle for expressing individual Jewish identity?

In the cosmology of Jewish holidays, Passover has traditionally been the celebration whose readings and rituals inspire worshipers to question the nature of their own Jewish values and beliefs. For decades, Jews of all persuasions have fashioned their own Seders, some adding a cup for the prophetess Miriam in celebration of Jewish women, others supplementing the Haggadah with a prayer for Darfur—all an affirmation of the celebrants’ core beliefs and of Hebrew heterodoxy.

In recent years, however, another holiday has started eclipsing Passover’s status as Jewish identity’s vastest playground. Sanctioning a host of transgressive behaviors—from drunkenness to masquerading in costume—and commemorating a tale of Jewish valor that culminates in the slaughter of 75,000 Persians more than 2,000 years ago, Purim is increasingly providing Jews of all backgrounds and ages with an opportunity to engage with whatever concerns them personally and politically.

In a way, this shouldn't come as a surprise. The Book of Esther, Purim’s ur-text, is one of only two biblical books that omit any mention of God, focusing instead on individuals and the consequences of their actions. Purim is also a holiday traditionally observed not in the synagogue (Megillah readings aside) or even around the family table, but on the street and in nightclubs, surrounded by friends. Add to that the playful tradition of masquerading, and Purim comes as close as possible to that rarest bird, a Jewish holiday that transcends the communal and allow revelers to focus instead on the personal.

Emily Nepon, a writer, performer, and activist, has come to see Purim as an opportunity to reconcile her Jewish and queer identities. In 2004, she helped organize “Suck My Treyf Gender,” an evening of progressive-themed performances inspired by the Purimspiel, the ancient tradition of staging rowdy bits of theater loosely based on the holiday’s story.

“There was something incredibly powerful about the overlap of the Jewish cultural norms of Purim and the queer cultural otherness,” she said. “When we put them together, we were shocked by how much they magnified each other. We were moved by it.”

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Let My People Go

There's a place where romantic fairy tale meets French bedroom farce, and where campy inside jokes about gay and Jewish stereotypes collide. This is the place where Mikael Buch's new film Let My People Go! sits – or, rather, where it luxuriates on a vintage chaise lounge.

The story of Reuben (Nicolas Maury) and his return home to his high-strung Parisian family after being dumped by his Finnish Adonis of a boyfriend is a brighter-than-life tale of reinvention and reconciling the different parts of one’s identity. Reuben is welcomed back from Finland by his mother (Almodovar-collaborator Carmen Maura) and the rest of the family just in time for Passover.

The movie's Jewish elements are playful -- a gay bar throws a "Coming Out of Egypt" party, and Reuben moans over the din of family hijinks: "My life has become a bad Jewish joke." What makes this approach most charming, though, is that it’s backed up by the kind of physical comedy that evokes early slapsticky Woody Allen.

Buch's deeply campy approach to his subject matter means that the film is heavy on the frosting, but truth is, there is so much robust warmth to the script and to the chemistry of the cast that it's sort of irresistible.