Melbourne hosts Limmud Oz from June 7-9 2025.
This year’s packed programme includes four queer-themed sessions, as detailed here.
Sunday June 8 • 12:00pm – 1:00pm • Idan Dorshav Dershowitz
What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?
The “abomination” passage in Leviticus 18 and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 are the two main biblical texts that come to mind when thinking about biblical attitudes toward homosexuality. We will explore the history of how these two passages have been interpreted, beginning already in the biblical period itself.
Sunday June 8 • 5:15pm – 6:15pm • Shoshana Gottlieb
70 faces: reading queerness into Torah study
Discover a new and exciting face of Torah! In this session, we will learn some Torah together (all levels welcome), and seek to understand how and where queerness can be seen within the text. How can our understanding of the stories, our traditions, and ourselves be made more meaningful?
Monday June 9 • 1:15pm – 2:15pm • Ari Jacob
The Jewish married life of a straight, religious homosexual
This is a session on Jewish continuity. But it’s not old-school. It’s a musical(ish) performance about how God made me gay, but Torah (sort of) made me straight (sort of). Not in a homophobic way. It’s about love, intimacy, and how I went from the Closet to the Chuppah. Not in a hippie way. Really, it’s a Kabbalistic journey through the divine masculine and feminine, and finding wholeness in contradiction. Or something like that.
Monday June 9 • 4pm – 5pm • Jacquie Seemann Charak
Schools, religion and the law: an unholy alliance
What is the state of ‘religious freedom’ in Australian schools? For example, may Jewish schools exclude non-Jewish students/staff? May an Anglican school force a Jewish student to attend chapel? How do religious schools deal with sexuality and dress codes? Religious schools juggle complicated questions – trying to avoid unlawful discrimination while also transmitting religious identity. We’ll explore what Australian Jewish schools can/can’t do compared to some other countries, and what the Religious Freedom Review (2018) had to say about these issues. We’ll also look at some examples of allegations of antisemitism in Australian schools, and what has happened to them.
