For the sake of Heaven: faith, sexuality, and communal Jewish identity at Yeshiva University

In 2019, twelve LGBTQIA+ Yeshiva University students filed an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the flagship Modern Orthodox higher education institution to compel them to recognize the YU Pride Alliance, Yeshiva University’s unofficial LGBTQIA+ affinity group. This study looks beyond legal wranglings and policy to consider the experiences of LGBTQIA+ Modern Orthodox Jews who are deeply invested in and wish to remain in Jewish community. Using Goffman’s concept of impression management and Bourdieu’s concepts of illusio and doxa as a combined theoretical lens, I examine what it means to be both Queer and Jewish at Yeshiva University and how my interlocutors navigate a cultural and religious field where communal cohesion and conformity take on misplaced symbolic capital. This interdisciplinary study considers the question of who has the right to define theological, cultural, and social values at a religiously affiliated higher education institution, and how LGBTQIA+ students navigate campus life in a setting that is not always welcoming or affirming.