Independence Park: The Lives of Gay Men in Israel

by Amir Sumaka'i Fink, Jacob Press

Overview

Independence Park, Tel Aviv, is the best-known meeting place for gay men in Israel; Independence Park, Jerusalem, is perhaps the second-best-known; and the hope for independence is the dominant theme of this wide-ranging collection of personal narratives told in the voices of twelve gay men representing a cross-section of contemporary Israeli society.

The speakers are Jew and Arab, ranging in age from 22 to 72. They include students and teachers, a waiter, a prostitute, a journalist, and a janitor. Some are married to women, some are “married” to men, some are single; their families come from Yemen, Germany, Morocco, Romania, Egypt, Russia. They talk about their family backgrounds and early childhood memories, their first stirrings of sexuality and responses to those feelings. They reveal their emotional struggles as well as their religious and political views.

The conviction structuring this book is that by allowing these men to render their different worlds in their own words, their voices will produce a layered chorus approximating the vibrant cacophony of the Israeli street. A remarkably rich assemblage of anthropological fieldwork, the book also can be read as literature—there are some fine storytellers here—or for pure human interest, as the narratives themselves are deeply moving.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804736190
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2000
Series:	Contraversions: Jews and Other Differences
Edition description:	1
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Amir Sumaka'i Fink is a graduate student in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Jacob Press is a graduate student in the Department of English at Duke University.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xiii
	A Note to the Reader	xvii
	Introduction	1
	Shahar	15
	No Am	50
	Rafi Niv	65
	Amit	91
	Andrei	121
	Eli	143
	Dan	165
	Walid	197
	Yossi	220
	Oren	273
	Itziq	306
	Theo Mainz	321
	Afterword	365
	Glossary	369

What People are Saying About This

William Brinner

This is one of the best books on present-day Israeli society that I have read. It is an original and stimulating, even unique, approach to a topic which, while rather familiar in our country, is certainly not so in Israel. By using the actual words of these twelve men, the authors give a very vivid picture of them as individuals, the gay "scene" in which they live, and, most important, the broader Israeli society in which they interact. The translation into English of very different levels of Hebrew is brilliant, capturing the individual quality and style of each man.
—(William Brinner, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley)

Joshua Gamson

The diverse, detailed stories in Independence Park are fascinating and moving -- joyful, wrenching, funny, honest -- and they pop with the complexities of Israeli social and political life, gayness, sex, and masculinity. An important and absorbing book.
—(Joshua Gamson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Yale University)

Yael Dayan

The maturation of Israel's relationship to its gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens will be recorded by historians as one of the most important social changes to take place in this decade. This book, like a juicy novel, allows us to absorb the big ideas at stake in this process by observing them at play in individual lives. The twelve brave men who speak here tell gripping tales, by turns tragic and comic, joyful and somber, but all, ultimately, full of hope.
"I know of no better portrait, in English, of Israel at fifty."
—(Yael Dayan, Member of Knesset (Labor), "My Father, His Daughter"

Editorial Reviews

This book, like a juicy novel, allows us to absorb the big ideas at stake in the maturation of Israel’s relationship to its gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens by observing these ideas at play in individual lives. The twelve brave men who speak here tell gripping tales, by turns tragic and comic, joyful and somber, but all, ultimately, full of hope. I know of no better portrait, in English, of Israel at fifty.”—Ya’el Dayan

From the Publisher

"The lives of gay men in Israel are not what you would think," Fink (a graduate student, Near Eastern Languages, Univ. of Chicago) and Press (a graduate student, English, Duke Univ.) write in the introduction to this vivid volume of personal narratives. The title refers to two eponymous parks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem which serve as the gay cruising places. Here, 12 diverse men representing a cross-section of Israeli gay male society (e.g., a male prostitute, a senior citizen, a Russian immigrant, an Arab, and a married man), all of whom have spent time in the parks, recount their life stories. While their tales display commonalities of experience that most gays will recognize, they also reveal Israeli society to be far more secular and tolerant than one might expect. Fink and Press display a dry wit and an ear for translating colloquial speech that makes each man emerge fully. An afterward brings the reader up to date on "where they are now," and a glossary is provided. Highly recommended for gay and Jewish studies collections in all libraries.--Richard Violette, Special Libraries Cataloging, Victoria, B.C. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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