Tales of the Sister City [San Francisco]

Queer Jewish-Palestinian Relationships in Haifa

Join Israeli scholar Dotan Brom to hear surprising stories from Haifa, San Francisco’s Sister City. Dotan is a researcher and tour guide known for co-creating Israel’s leading podcast on queer history. A PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University, Dotan co-curated Israel’s first museum exhibition on queer history.

Dotan will reveal the overlooked history of queer relations between Jews and Palestinians in Haifa, including:

• sexual and romantic encounters in the city’s cruising grounds,
• power relations between Jewish and Palestinian men,
• the participation of Palestinian men in Jewish-led gay organizations, and
• the rise of Aswat, a Palestinian lesbian feminist group.

It is a story of both solidarity and violence, which promises to complicate what you think you know about coexistence and queer history in Israel.

This event will take place on Thursday, October 23 at 7:00 PM PT, in-person in San Francisco with a virtual option available; please sign-up below. Refreshments will be provided at 6:30 PM for those joining us in-person. This event is organized by Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ synagogue, and co-sponsored by Queers Against Antisemitism, a program of A Wider Bridge, as well as the San Francisco – Haifa Sister City Committee.