Halacha and the trans- gendered

Transgender and Jewish by Naomi Zeveloff, editor, The Forward Association, Inc., New York, NY; ISBN 978-1-499339-72-7 ©2014, $9.00, p. 43, plus A List of Contributors

By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.

WINCHESTER, California — American Jews seem to always be at the forefront of cultural and social change, such as with the Abolitionists, Suffragettes, and Feminists. Now we are hearing new voices, voices shouting from the LGBT community, demanding equality in their pursuit of a meaningful and happy Jewish life. Transgender and Jewish, edited by award-winning deputy cultural editor of the Forward, Naomi Zeveloff, speaks on behalf of Jewish transgender persons.

The book begins by highlighting the accomplishments of five transgender people, all of whom are now rabbis, ordained by the Reconstructionist and Reform Jewish movements, and one privately ordained by a Conservative rabbi. Each arrived in a Jewish leadership position through different paths, but all agree that the “transgender individual pose a unique challenge to an ancient faith built on strict gender codes.”

Although there are Orthodox rabbis who allow surgery as part of gender reassignment, in general, the Orthodox Jewish movements have yet to embrace the designation LGBT, based on Genesis 1:27, which states that God created humanity only as males and females, the prohibition against cross-dressing in Deuteronomy 22:5, and the ruling out of sex-change operations, which they dervive from Leviticus 22:24, coupled with the belief that “even sex reassignment surgery cannot change one’s gender.”

The Conservative movement, in 2003, acknowledged that gender-reassignment surgery is allowed under Jewish law, and that such surgery alters the religious sex status of that transgender person. Yet, none have been ordained by them. Only Emily Aviva Kapor, ordained privately by a Conservative rabbi, has become the first openly transgender Conservative rabbi. Her story is told in Transgender and Judaism.

Camp experience for the transgender may pose another obstacle, including counselor training, and bathroom and sleeping arrangements. One camper opined that “The vibe I got was that the counselors or older people, the campers, wouldn’t be that great about [my transition from male to female].” Peg Smith, CEO of the American Camp Association says that “the trans kid at camp is not at risk, the risk comes with not knowing how to manage it well.” Zeveloff describes Camp Aranu’tiq, a Massachusetts-based Jewish camp that caters to transgender and gender-variant youth “(that is, children whose gender expression does not conform to conventional ideas of masculinity and femininity).” Here the campers, many of whom have been bullied, beaten up, and threatened can express themselves freely.

Some trans-persons find their way into Judaism through conversion, which opens up questions about halacha, Jewish law: does the convert go to a mikva? Have a circumcision? Indeed, what are the appropriate blessings to be said on this occasion? Duncan McCullough reports having “told his parents in a letter that he identified as a male, not female; the admission left him feeling unmoored.” He sought out Judaism, which became his safe harbor after sincere acceptance at Beth Israel in Jackson, Mississippi.

The book ends with a chapter by Noach Dzmura, a convert and trans-man, entitled “Does Gender Matter After Death?” in which he asks, how should a tahara, a ritual cleansing of the deceased by a team of three or four Jews the night before burial, be conducted for a trans-person.? Dzmura concerns himself with the practical aspects of the committee: under Jewish law, men purify men, women purify women. Supposed the deceased wishes to be celebrated in both aspects of life, what should happen? Which prayers should be said?

Dzmura raises an interesting point. Does gender really matter after death? The body decays and without exhumation and medical investigation one cannot tell if the body were once male or female, and certainly not the self-image and gender beliefs once held in the mind. During life, in orthodox communities, men and women are segregated. Does God segregate the souls of the departed by gender? Indeed, the Hebrew word for soul is Neshamah, a feminine noun. Are all souls feminine even in a masculine body? Do souls even have a gender? Additionally, some hold that the Shekinah represents the feminine attributes of God’s presence on earth. If God has feminine attributes, then how should one reinterpret this belief for the transgender Jewish community?

Transgender and Jewish does not ask the reader for a thing, not pity, not compassion. On the contrary, it gives the reader deep insights into the closely held, personal feelings of transgender people. In the Forward to this book, Joy Ladin tells of her childhood terror, fearing “rejection and humiliation by presenting ourselves as transgender.” Later she offers, “When I was a child, God was the only being I knew who, like me, didn’t have a body. My dissociation from my male body made me feel that I didn’t exist. My body wasn’t me; but how could I exist if I didn’t have a body…. Like me, God had no body, and so couldn’t be seen by other people. But I knew God was there, and real – and so, in my strange, dissociated way, I must be too.”

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Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired publicand Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and a fiction book, Reclaiming the Messiah. The author can be reached via  fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com.