London suburbs and the co-creation of LGBT+ Jewish identities

LGBT+ London is typically associated with the ‘Soho Scene’ and gentrified parts of Islington, Hackney and Vauxhall. In contrast ‘Jewish London’ is often associated with a mythologized East End, first entry point for many Jewish immigrants in the nineteenth century, and with the north and north-west inner suburbs of Stamford Hill and Golders Green. In this chapter we set out to expand these geographically limited ‘imagined spaces’ and explore how people who are both LGBT+ and Jewish describe a hybridized presence in London’s wider suburbs. We propose that suburban London itself may feature as a ‘character’ in the consolidation and constitution of LGBT+ Jewish identities in the capital and explore how co-creative methodologies of working with/in LGBT+ Jewish communities can broaden a sense of belonging – in particular through ‘reconstructing’ ritual in non-traditional settings. In these ways we engage with the rarely discussed interplay of LGBT+ and Jewish identities beyond central London but importantly not beyond London. While our methodology has broader reach, our substantive claims relate to the specificity of London’s suburban spaces and we deliberately don’t extend them to other places. We present our exploration predominantly through the prism of two research projects which between them explored how a queer blending of particular spaces and Jewish commemorative ritual might aid the constitution of LGBT+ Jewish ‘places’ as experienced by groups or individuals.