Reading Response Week 8

The LGBTQ community experiences discrimination everywhere in the world, so reading about their difficulties in Palestine and Israel was unfortunately not a surprise to me. I watched the clip for the City of Borders documentary and was struck by the line that the Israeli Adam said: "When you hide [your identity], something is wrong." Considering the religious influences of the region, this seems like something one would have to do. It's sad that in a modern democracy that the discrimination was as fierce as the people in the documentary explained it to be just within those brief clips. It's not only sad that people are suffering in some part of the world for doing nothing wrong, but disheartening for the LGBTQ movement worldwide.

In our assignments for this week, I got the feeling that Haredim Jews are looked at the way that Amish and Conservative Mennonites are viewed in the United States, but with a politicized twist. In other words, their practices are respected and anti-secularism seems strange to outsiders. But unlike Amish and Mennonite communities, they strive to push and expand their beliefs onto others within their own religious groups (so Haredim Jews onto secular Jews). I am not sure if this is a correct analogy, so someone correct me if I'm viewing this the wrong way, as I don't know much about Haredim Jews in a social context. I did not know about their unemployment problem and poverty rate. They are aware of their problem and realize that their choice to adhere to their customs comes with a cost, so I am unsure of how Israel will try to solve the poverty issue, or if they will be able to push this sect to do things that they may not want to do in order to help Israeli society grow and not place a financial burden on the Israeli government.

I had heard about the Ultra-Orthodox wedding before looking at these pictures, but did not realize what a huge deal it was before looking at the article assigned for today. The aesthetics of the wedding were beautiful and seeing the traditional aspect of the wedding was fascinating to me. I then Googled the name of the bride, and the first suggestion that Google had for me was "Hannah Batya Penet face," followed by "Hannah Batya Penet unveiled." It was interesting that everyone looking her up online wanted to see what she looked like, which seemed to defeat the purpose of her being veiled for the ritual. Just as a side note, I think it's interesting how much we want to put a face with a name. Equally as noteworthy is that I could not find a picture of her face anywhere online.

Discussion Questions:
1. Israel and Palestine are places with very strong religious influences. Do you think that the LGBTQ community will ever achieve equality as they would in a more secular place?
2. Did you get the idea that Haredim Jews were viewed more negatively than other Jews? If yes, did it seem to be for the way that they interact with other Jews, or perhaps because of their economic place in Israeli society?