Keep Your Wives Away from Them

Keep Your Wives Away from Them is an intellectual but not academic documentation of what it’s like to be a lesbian in the Orthodox Jewish community. Though other such books exist, none address the different ways in which these women integrate their sexual desire and identity with their religion, traditions, and spirituality in the day to day.

***WINNER, 2011 Golden Crown Literary Award – Anthology

Reconciling queerness with religion has always been an enormous challenge. When the religion is Orthodox Judaism, the task is even more daunting. This anthology takes on that challenge by giving voice to genderqueer Jewish women who were once silenced-and effectively rendered invisible-by their faith. Keep Your Wives Away from Them tells the story of those who have come out, who are still closeted, living double lives, or struggling to maintain an integrated “single life” in relationship to traditional Judaism-personal stories that are both enlightening and edifying. While a number of films and books have explored the lives of queer people in Orthodox and observant Judaism, only this one explores in depth what happens after the struggle, when the real work of building integrated lives begins. The candor of these insightful stories in Keep Your Wives Away from Them makes the book appealing to a general audience and students of women’s, gender, and LGBTQ studies, as well as for anyone struggling personally with the same issue. Contributors include musician and writer Temim Fruchter, Professor Joy Ladin, writer Leah Lax, nurse Tamar Prager, and the pseudonymous Ex-Yeshiva Girl. Keep Your Wives Away from Them official website- http-//www.keepyourwivesawayfromthem.com/

Author Biography

Miryam Kabakov is director of the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival, national program director of AVODAH- The Jewish Service Corps, coordinator of LGBT programming at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center, and a frequent speaker and workshop leader. She lives in Minnesota.