By Sage Cassell-Rosenberg
On this Transgender Day of Visibility, we at Keshet offer you rituals, wisdom, and celebration. And above all, art. Art that spotlights the diverse experiences, the multivocality of trans and nonbinary Jews. Art that shares our truths, our struggles, our joys. Art through which we can be fully seen. Art that shows we have always been here and will continue to be.
“The rabbis suggested that the first human—HaAdam, The Adam—was created as both male and female in one…The biblical narrator tells us that The Human was created in God’s image; surely, then, all of us—men, women, and everything else—are all sacred reflections of the divine.”
– Reflection by Saffron Mala Kaplan, photo by Luis Mercedes Winter,
Flowers for Our People
“In our current world, LGBTQ+ people and Jewish people are simultaneously hunted, defiled, and made to be wicked villains…I am deeply proud to be trans and to be a Jew. I am also deeply fearful to be trans and to be a Jew. But why?”
– Eliana Rubin, Turn It and Turn It
“I grew up in southern Indiana…Today, I cannot legally move home without running up against my home state’s anti-trans laws which would prevent me from updating legal documents that match my identity. We need to be talking about ‘transplants’…who have felt pressured to move, either to access gender-affirming healthcare or to escape regressive anti-trans legislation…We need to be talking about the mass exodus of trans people across our country.”
– Issac Young,
We Cannot Abandon the Fight for Trans Rights Anywhere
“Every day for me, for as long as I live is TDOV… As a Black trans woman, we have one of the shortest life expectancies among all trans people. So, every day I have lived in my authentic truth is a victory…My very survival is an act of celebration.”
– Alaine Jolicoeur,
Keshet Conversations: Holding On to Hope – Reflections on TDOV
“I recently led a discussion for trans youth…As a participant said, “I need a version of God that wants me to be trans on purpose.”
– Elie Hausman,
Trans Jewish Youth Deserve More
“Blessed is He who made this body and called it whole
Who built it queer and trans and disabled and called it good
Whose image is expansive enough to hold all of my contradictions
All of my broken
All of my bruised…”
– Excerpt from Asher Yatzar (“Who Formed”) by James; art by Floyd,
Keshet Youth Zine (pages 51 and 35)
“Being trans is to love ourselves completely“
You said that and I felt my heart swell
It was like being seen for the first time…
This isn’t quite a love letter
But more so a thank you for seeing me
And allowing me to love myself
– Ziggy Valdez,
Flowers for Our People on Trans Day of Visibility
Find these pieces in their entirety and much more at keshetonline.org/trans-day-of-visibility.
On this Transgender Day of Visibility, may we revel in our wholeness, in the holiness of all trans people. And may we all recommit to the work of trans equality and freedom.
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