Books by Jonathan C. Friedman

Testimonies from the survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation form the basis of this study of memory and trauma in relation to women''s experiences and sexual behavior during Hitler''s reign of terror. The three essays in this manuscript explore survivor testimony for memories of sexual politics and the functioning of the Nazi state, sexual abuse that often cut across gender lines, and sexual behavior in the different contexts of persecution_ghettos, camps, and hiding.

Rainbow Jews deals with the intersection of gay and Jewish identity in American and Israeli film and theater, from the 1960s to the present. Its main area of interest is the extent to which Jewish creative voices in the performing arts have constructed multidimensional images of, and a welcoming public space for, the gay, lesbian, and transgendered community as a whole. Through a close reading of the texts of numerous American and Israeli plays and films (some famous, but mostly lesser known), the author evaluates some of the key conventions and tropes that have been employed to construct, critique, and reflect the social reality of the connection between Jewishness and gay identity in the United States and Israel. Secondarily, the author explores ways in which gay-Jewish playwrights and filmmakers have assisted the re-evaluation of sexual norms within Judaism over the past three decades, inspiring and reinforcing measures across the spectrum of belief geared towards integrating Jewish members of the GLBT community into the overall Jewish historical narrative.