September 18, 2022

9pm ET / 6pm PT

Online

Price: Free

Sponsoring Organization:

A new anthology exploring the many dimensions of gender expression and transgression in Jewish history, text, and experience has just been released by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Liberating Gender for Jews and Allies: The Wisdom of Transkeit, edited by Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman and Rev. Jakob Hero, is a volume years in the making. An extraordinary collection of essays by trans Jews and allies, it explores cutting-edge ideas about gender as understood through lenses of tradition, art, autobiography, and allyship. Transkeit features explorations of biblical and rabbinic thinking, creative ritual, guidance on Jewish practice, spoken word poetry, music, trans Jewish history, psychology, and personal story. The richly diverse contributing voices include transpioneer Kate Bornstein, a drag queen rabbi, Jews by Choice, Jews of Color, the Jewish consultant to the show “Transparent,” Orthodox Jews, a Jewish priestess, and a Metropolitan Community Church minister. Each page reveals startling, fresh insights into the construction and disruption of gender from a Jewish perspective.

The launch party, hosted by CLGS, the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at Pacific School of Religion, will be moderated by the book’s editors. Contributors offering excerpts of their essays include Rabbi Fern Feldman, Rabbi Susan Goldberg, Zebulon Hurst, Marla Brettschneider, Rabbi Irwin Keller, Rabbi Rona Matlow, Martin Rawlings-Fein, and Abi Weissman. The event is co-sponsored by Reconstructing Judaism, ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav (San Francisco), Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (New York), and Sojourn (Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender & Sexual Diversity).

The event will be a joyful celebration of Jewish trans learning. Hosted by CLGS, The Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at Pacific School of Religion