Shavuot: BAJC Marks Jewish Holiday and Gay Pride Month

THE COMMONS ONLINE

Ruth and Naomi by Arthur Szyk. Courtesy of Contemporary Jewish Museum

VERMONT---On Tuesday, June 3, from 7 p.m. to midnight, Brattleboro Area Jewish Community (BAJC) will offer a fun evening of study for the holiday of Shavuot and to mark June as Gay Pride Month in Brattleboro. On Shavuot, it is customary to stay up all night to study Jewish texts. In honor of Gay Pride Month in Brattleboro, the community will study the contemporary midrashic (interpretive) reading of this text as a story of lesbian love and commitment between Ruth and Naomi. They’ll also consider Naomi as a stranger in a foreign land, Ruth as a convert, and Ruth and Naomi as powerful women who use gender relations to their advantage. [link]