Lesbiot

the long version

LESBIOT is a collection of life stories by contemporary Israeli lesbians, edited from their oral histories by a group of women that includes Joan Nestle, Spike Pittsberg (pseud of Sue Katz), Jenifer Levin and Irena Klepfisz. Twenty-one lively, intimate narratives reveal a wide range of lesbian experience in Israel. Aged twenty to seventy, over half the women are native Israelis, while the others are immigrants from France, the US, UK, Germany, Uruguay and Canada. Ethnically, they identify as Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Anglo and Puerto Rican. All but one are Jews. Coupled and single; dwelling in cities, small towns and on kibbutzim; working in many professions and retired; observant and secular; politically of different perspectives; some raising kids; some stilled married to men- the group is diverse and their stories fascinating. Five major themes recur in these women's stories: family history; personal biography; lesbian sensibility and experience; Jewishness, Judaism and Israel; and feminism and political issues. Introducing the collection is an essay describing the nature of life in contemporary Israel with a focus on the particular conditions for women and lesbians; this provides an historical, social and political context for the narratives.