Private, Public and Orthodoxy: Hasidim and Sexuality in Montreal

• In Event: Jewish Orthodoxies: Social Science Perspectives

Abstract

For many pious groups, family, sexuality and gender represent three fundamental pillars of their religious, social and cultural life. In the context of ultra-orthodox groups, those pillars are often materialized through gender segregation where socialization rarely occurs with the opposite sex. In the case of Ultra-orthodox Jews, this separation starts at an early age, resulting in an entire gender segregated society. In such a context, one can wonder how this binary dynamic between heterosexual relationship as the sexual norm and exclusive social interaction with same-sex individuals affects the social and sexual practices according to gender.

I examine this question through data gathered during the ethnographic field study that I have been conducting in the Ultra-Orthodox communities in Montreal and New York City since 2015, and more particularly from three types of Hasidic women and men: those who have an open contact with secular society, those who have a discrete contact, those who decide to break away. Specifically, I analyze the discourses on homoeroticism of my respondents. This paper will lead us to rethink the ambivalence between the normalization of heterosexuality and homoeroticism as a shaping element of this orthodoxy. To respond to the theoretical question about the specificity of orthodoxies in regards with fundamentalism and the rejection of the liberal project, I will argue that orthodoxy can be define as a space of constant negotiation between the private and public discourse, or to follow Goffman between front stage and back stage.

Author

• Jessica Roda, Georgetown University