Doorposts of Inclusion: Trans Pride Mezuzah as a Marker of Jewish-Queer Space
Material Religion, V-22(1), 59-85. [2025]
אנגלית
This article explores the Mezuzah - a quintessential symbol of the Jewish home - within a novel context: the "Trans Pride Mezuzah." Ben-Lulu analyzes how designing a Mezuzah in the colors of the Trans Pride flag (blue, pink, and white) transforms it from a strictly Halakhic object into an identit...
"The Light within Me": celebrating the self through Jewish holidays in Israeli state education
Journal of Contemporary Religion, V-40(2), 239-257. [2025]
אנגלית
This empirical study explores the transformation of Jewish holiday celebrations within the Israeli secular state education system. The authors argue that traditional collective and national narratives of holidays (such as Hanukkah or Passover) are increasingly being replaced or augmented by a "ps...
The Sixth Scroll: The Ritualization of Israel's Declaration of Independence
Nations and Nationalism, Early View, 70035. [2025]
אנגלית
This article analyzes the process of "ritualization" applied to Israel's Declaration of Independence between 2011 and 2025 by various Jewish renewal organizations. Sherzer explores how these groups have reframed a foundational political document as a "quasi-sacred" text by incorporating it into t...
Embodying Tradition and Ascribing Meaning: Israeli Jewish Atheists Choosing to Circumcise Their Sons
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, V-64(4), 442-454 [2025]
אנגלית
The article investigates a striking paradox: Why do Israeli Jewish atheists, who explicitly reject religious belief, still choose to perform circumcision (Brit Milah) on their sons? Using a "lived religion" framework, Friedman explores the meanings these parents ascribe to this physically intrusi...
To Belong as Individuals: Making Meaning – Personal and Shared – In Liberal Jewish Talmud Study
Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 32200935. [2025]
אנגלית
This dissertation investigates how liberal Jewish adults engage in Talmud study to create personal and communal meaning. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork in diverse settings - including traditional-style Batei Midrash and liberal educational programs, Kern explores the pedagogical strateg...
Resonating repentance: selichot and the performance of Mizrahi identity in the Israeli public sphere
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, V-23. [2024]
אנגלית
This article explores the revitalization of Sephardi Selichot (penitential prayers) in Israel, tracing their transformation from intimate synagogue services to large-scale public concerts and mainstream cultural events. It analyzes how these performances serve as a site for constructing and displ...
ותכירנו לעמוד לפניך: אתנוגרפיה של ריטואלים לציון הימים הנוראים בקהילה הרפורמית
סוציולוגיה ישראלית, כ"ה(2), 118-141. [2024]
עברית
המאמר מציג מחקר אתנוגרפי שנערך בקהילה רפורמית בישראל במהלך חגי תשרי ("הימים הנוראים"). בן-לולו בוחן כיצד הקהילה מתמודדת עם הדיסוננס שבין הטקסטים המסורתיים של החגים – המציגים את האל כ"מלך", "שופט" ודמות סמכותנית ומפחידה – לבין הערכים הליברליים, השוויוניים וההומניסטיים של חברי הקהילה. הכותרת "ותכיר...
Between social and legal legitimations: Weddings outside the rabbinate in Israel
Religions, V-14(2), 240. [2023]
אנגלית
The study investigates the growing phenomenon of Israeli Jewish couples choosing to marry in private ceremonies, bypassing the official Chief Rabbinate, even though these marriages are not formally recognized by the state. Through interviews with forty couples, the researchers found that for thes...
Who has the right to the city? Reform Jewish rituals of gender-religious resistance in Tel AvivJaffa
Gender, Place & Culture, V-29(9), 1251–1273. [2022]
אנגלית
This ethnographic study examines rituals performed by a Reform Jewish community in Tel Aviv-Jaffa through the theoretical lens of Henri Lefebvre’s "The Right to the City." Ben-Lulu analyzes how the community utilizes urban public spaces (such as the Tel Aviv Port or Old Jaffa) to enact a dual for...
“Casting Our Sins Away”: A Comparative Analysis of Queer Jewish Communities in Israel and in the US
Religions, V-13(9), 845. [2022]
אנגלית
This ethnographic study compares the performance of the "Tashlich" ritual in two egalitarian Jewish congregations: a Reform community in Tel Aviv and an LGBTQ synagogue in New York City. The author analyzes how this traditional atonement ritual is reinterpreted to empower gender and sexual identi...
Reforming the Israeli-Arab conflict? Interreligious hospitality in Jaffa and its discontents
Social Compass, V-69(1), 3-21. [2022]
אנגלית
This ethnographic study analyzes the ritual practices of the "Daniel" Reform congregation in Jaffa, specifically focusing on "interreligious hospitality." The authors examine how the community uses Jewish holidays and synagogue spaces to host Muslim neighbors (e.g., hosting Iftar meals or mixed h...
‘A Birthday Party, Only a Little Bigger’: A Historical Anthropology of the Israeli Bat Mitzvah
Jewish Culture and History, V-16(3), 275–292. [2016]
אנגלית
This article traces the historical and cultural evolution of the Bat Mitzvah ceremony in Israel. It argues that unlike the Bar Mitzvah, which is rooted in religious law, the Bat Mitzvah emerged as a distinctively modern, consumer-oriented "birthday party," reflecting the ambivalence of Israeli so...