Zizi: Here I am

Zizi talks to Rainbow Jews about coming out, family, community, being LGBT in Britain, relationships and love at first sight.

Zizi recalls how she went on a trip to Krakow with her partner and some other gay Jews, about eight close friends. She says it was important for her both as a Jew but also as a gay Jew. Zizi says one of the most significant things for her to do at the camp was light a memorial candle at the concentration camp in memory of the Jews all over Europe who had passed away. She describes the iconic image of arriving on the rail line and passing through the gates into the camp. “For me it was symbolically and massively important to walk with my same sex partner, holding her hand, along those railings and out of the gates as a Jew, as a gay woman, and it was saying, I am here, we survived despite everything that you did to both gay people…and Jews in particular. You wanted to destroy us, and here I am. You are destroyed and I am walking out with the person in this world who makes me happiest. With my friends who are walking out with their partners as well. That was so symbolically important to me.”

Read on: Zizi Summary

A big thanks to Lisa Rodin.