Berkeley, USA
— Razi was raised as a girl, in a feminist
Jewish Revival synagogue. Nobody ever told Razi not to do
the things boys did, but still Razi found religious
events a source of discomfort. This was because Razi
"felt too self-conscious in my own skin to wear the
appropriate clothing" for ceremonies. Razi wanted to
dress up, but didn't feel comfortable. It was only when
Razi grew up and transformed from a girl into a man that
he discovered a new relationship with Judaism.
Instead of being the bane
of his existence, dressing up for synagogue became a
thrill. "When I began identifying as male, I couldn't
wait to put on a tie and yarmulke and enter the community
as a young Jewish man," says Razi, now a college
student.
As transgender visibility
increases across Western culture as a whole,
gender-transforming Jews have started to carve out a
space for themselves in Jewish society. They've stared
down gender preconceptions, paranoia, and
misunderstandings. But in many cases, they've also found
that transitioning has enriched their relationship with
Judaism, and vice versa.
Trans Jews also have
created their own communities on the Internet and
elsewhere. These include a "TransJews" email group on
Yahoo, a community on Livejournal.com, and an acclaimed
zine called TimTum: A Trans-Jew Zine, written by tranny
anti-Occupation activist Micah Bazant, who also wrote the
Trans Manifesto, a well-circulated on-line call for the
recognition of equal rights for the
transgendered.
Inevitably, when a Jewish
person changes gender, this changes his or her
relationship to the religion. Israeli American Beth Orens
completed her transition from male to female in 1997 and
finds that her status is "a little different now." Orens
runs the Dina email list for Orthodox Jewish trans
people.
"It annoys me when I know
more about something than a rabbi does, but I have no
authority," frets Orens, herself an Orthodox Jew. Even
before she transitioned, she lacked authority, but she
feels this more keenly as a woman. At the same time, she
says, "Judaism is all about distinctions," and
"difference does not have to mean inequality."
On the other hand,
transitioning from female to male "made involvement with
Judaism possible for me," says Jerrold, a
twenty-four-year-old man. "As a female, I had no
connection to the religion at all. My Bat Mitzvah was a
farce. I was the first girl to be allowed to read
Haftorah at my shul but still wasn't allowed to read
Torah. None of it meant anything to me." But as soon as
Jerrold became a man, he felt as though he had a place in
Judaism. His only awkwardness comes because he didn't
receive the upbringing and training that would have come
with being raised as a male. He doesn't know how to put
on tefillin, and he only knows Haftorah trope, as opposed
to Torah trope. He still feels "awkward about women's
roles," such as the fact that women must sit on the other
side of the mechitzah (the barrier that divides men from
women in Orthodox synagogues). But as a man, he doesn't
feel it's his place to raise these issues on women's
behalf.
Brooklynne Thomas, events
coordinator for the Youth Gender Project in San
Francisco, converted to Judaism from Catholicism at age
nineteen. At the time, Thomas was a man in the process of
marrying a Jewish man whose mother wanted Thomas to
convert or leave her son. Thomas had already been
"harboring secret desires to be Jewish," so the ultimatum
proved liberating. Thomas' marriage to the Jewish boy
ended some time later, and then she transitioned into a
woman. She says she feels much safer as a Jewish
transwoman than she would have as a Catholic. She feels
that Judaism is more accepting and less concerned with
creating distance between the priesthood and the laity
than Catholicism.
Castration Anxiety,
Sterilization Terror
Even if changing your
gender makes you more comfortable with Judaism, there's
no guarantee that every Jew will accept your new gender
identity. The majority of Orthodox rabbis refuse to
recognize the gender identities of people who've had
genital surgery (regarding it as genital mutilation),
much less those of people who've merely taken hormones or
taken on a genderqueer identity.
The majority of halachic
authorities in Israel take the position that a person's
gender is irrevocably fixed at birth, according to a 1998
article in the Jerusalem Post. Not only that, but the
article cites the influential 1977 opinion of Yeshiva
University Professor J. David Bleich that genital
reassignment surgery violates the prohibition on
sterilization for women, or castration for men. The
article also cites a "minority" view by Rabbi Eliezer
Waldenberg, a judge in the Supreme Rabbinical Court in
Jerusalem, that surgery does change someone's gender.
Often cited by Orthodox trans persons such as Beth Orens
as an authoritative halachic position, Waldenberg's
opinion is not widely shared by other Orthodox
rabbis.
However, even if, like
Waldenberg, they accept that someone can change his or
her sex, halachic authorities see a host of bewildering
questions, according to the Post article, such as whether
a female to male transsexual must be circumcized, whether
a transgender person must get divorced, and what sexual
partners are "appropriate" for transgender people.
Orthodox Jewish transphobia "makes frum homophobia look
like nothing," says Orens. And non-Orthodox Jews can be
just as bad, she adds. Orens had one friend, formerly
Orthodox but now intermarried, who stopped talking to
Orens after she realized Orens was formerly
male.
But Reform Judaism has
been more accepting. Jonathan Edelstein's blog HeadHeeb
links to a 1990 responsa from the Central College of
American Rabbis that says Reform Judaism should "accept
the findings of modern science, which holds that external
genitalia may not reflect the true identity of the
individual."
Jerrold says that all his
relatives reacted positively, although his parents were
slow to adjust. His ninety-year-old grandmother was the
second person to start calling him by his male name. And
even his Orthodox extended family in Europe had no
problems.
And then there are some
who regard transgenderism as a special benefit. Razi
tells of one Orthodox Jew who identified as bisexual but
vowed he'd "take a gun to the head" before sleeping with
a man.
Someone brought up the
issue of transmen, and the man became excited, because
that would be perfect. "Because to me he'd be a man, but
to G-d he'd still be a woman, so it would be allowed!"
the man said. His interlocutors were
horrified.
Some Orthodox rabbis, at
least, would disagree with that reluctant bisexual that a
transman is still a woman "to G-d." Orens says she's
obtained two legitimate halachic opinions that she's
actually female.
Traditions Enrich
Transformation
Judaism offers some
rituals that help people add meaning to the process of
transitioning from one gender to another. Before he had
his chest reconstruction, Jerrold went to a Renewal
rabbi, who performed a spiritual mikvah in his hot tub.
It was "a great experience," Jerrold says. Jerrold asked
another rabbi to perform a hatafat dam brit for him, "but
he thought it was unnecessary since I'm already
Jewish."
"Adapting traditional
rituals for use in my transition, especially the surgery,
helped me to feel safe, grounded, [and] settled
about what I was doing," Jerrold explains. "Because
Judaism is so rich in life-cycle events, everything can
be very easily adapted to provide a ritual framework for
transition and celebrate what are truly joyous, freeing
occasions."
Almost every story in
Judaism is about transition, the most important one being
from slavery to freedom, Jerrold adds. "It's a great lens
through which to view your own life and a means to draw
lessons from your history."
"My involvement with
Judaism and spirituality has given me a chance to take
issues of identity seriously, and has given me wise
teachers with whom I can discuss the things in life that
are important," says Razi. Conversely, changing his
gender has forced him to reconsider many things about his
life, including his Judaism.One online guide to running a
progressive seder suggests asking everybody present which
pronoun he or she prefers. If there are any transgender
people present, this will put them at their ease. If not,
it'll make the participants think for a moment about how
they take their own gender identities for
granted.
And there are other ways
that Judaism can help people seeking alternative ways of
viewing their gender identity. "Did you know there are
seven genders mentioned in the Talmud?" asks S. Bear
Bergman, a writer and performance artist who deals with
issues of Judaism and gender, and identifies as a butch
rather than as a transsexual. The Talmud includes
guidelines on incorporating different genders and sexes
into Jewish society. Even if those multi-gendered
guidelines aren't followed today, they set a precedent
for accepting non-binary genders in Jewish life, says
Razi. Because Judaism doesn't have a hell, Jewish people
can't claim that transgenders will go to hell, notes
Razi.
Exceptional Cases
Illuminate the Rule
It's often through the
outliers that you see the true nature of the center. In
the case of Judaism, transgender people often raise
unusual questions that past generations of Jews might
never have considered. And yet the answers to those
questions reveal much about the heart of the Jewish
faith.
Now that Thomas has
converted from Catholicism to Judaism and from male to
female, she mostly dates female-to-male transsexuals. If
she chooses to have a baby with one of these transmen,
most likely her partner will carry the baby in his womb.
But Thomas will be the baby's mother in every other
sense. Such reverse-gender parenting situations are rare,
but becoming more common in San Francisco, where transmen
and transwomen sometimes date. If the baby's father is a
gentile, will the baby be Jewish? It depends on whether
you believe the mother is the person who gives birth to a
child, or the child's female parent. Or looked at another
way, it depends whether you believe someone's gender is
their physical self, or their inner essence. "I've talked
to several Jews and rabbis about this, because this is an
important issue with me," says Thomas. She says it boils
down to the clash between biological sex and spiritual
and mental gender. The consensus among the people she's
consulted is that the latter is more important than the
former, especially for transgender people. So Thomas
would be her baby's mother even if she didn't give birth.
"It's the spiritual gender that you would follow to
determine the Jewish status of the child," Thomas
concludes.
Jerrold identifies as a
gay man, and isn't sure how he stands with regard to
Judaism's marriage and purity laws. "I struggle with what
kind of marriage can be sanctified as kiddushin." Like
Thomas, he wants to become a parent and isn't sure "what
kinds of challenges there will be
halachically."
For Bear, who has become
progressively more masculine and ended up with a
self-described "Rorschach" gender, Jewish ritual has
become a minefield. Often, Chabad people have made
assumptions about Bear's gender identity based on
appearances and have "been quite insistent on showing me
how to lay tefillin or daven," or have tried to put
gender-specific ritual objects into Bear's
hands.
When this happens, Bear's
identities "feel at war. Whose interpretation of my
gender, my sex, do I honor?" Bear always resists the
temptation to take on the male role and "defile" the
ritual objects for anyone who thinks about sex and gender
more conservatively. Bear would rather educate people
about gender than show disrespect for someone else's
religious beliefs "in such a direct and dishonorable
way."
People whose gender
either contradicts or reinterprets their birth assignment
are working hard to create a space for themselves within
Judaism. They're finding that the variety and depth of
Jewish traditions offer them opportunities as well as
constraints.
"I love that Judaism
contains a function for responding to current issues in
responsa," says Bergman. "I think of Judaism, especially
Reform Judaism, as practical and compassionate, and I
expect that the response surrounding trans issues will
emerge in a similar spirit."
Jewish Policy
Statement: "The Status of Transsexuals" —
The Conservative movement
has recently issued a policy statement on transgender
Jews, which suggests that a wholesale change in
Rabbinical recognition of the transgendered is afoot.
According to a United Synagogue Review summary of recent
decisions of the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on
Jewish Law and Standards circulated on the TransJews
listserv, Rabbi Mayer Rabinowitz issued a responsum
entitled "The Status of Transsexuals," which took the
following revolutionary positions:
1. Only those who have
undergone full Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS), including
phalloplasty/vaginoplasty, are to be considered as having
changed their sex status and should be recognized as
their new sex by Jewish law.
2. A person who has
undergone partial SRS is not deemed to have changed their
sex status.
3. A brit of hatafat dam
brit is not required for one who has had a
phalloplasty.
4. A get (Jewish divorce)
is not necessary if one spouse undergoes SRS since the
kiddushin are automatically annulled. However, in the
case of a Male to Female (MTF) person, a get should be
given before the SRS is completed.
5. Recognition by the
civil authorities of the new sex status is required in
order to marry a person who has undergone SRS. This will
prevent us from performing same sex marriages according
to civil law.
6. A new name should be
given to the person with a new sexual status by means of
a misheberach.
The teshuvah was
approved.
