WATCH: Abby Stein shares three Jewish texts that show more than two genders in Judaism
Abby Stein for the Forward Image by Jake Sojcher
Abby Stein is a proud Jewish woman. But growing up, she didn’t feel that Judaism had a space for people like her.
Abby was raised in an ultra-Orthodox hasidic Jewish community, and as she puts it, “growing up, we had a very strong focus on studying, researching, questioning and finding answers in texts.”
The Torah and Talmud — and rabbis’ interpretations of them — dictate every aspect of Orthodox life. These texts are seen by the community to prohibit anything but traditional heterosexual marriages — which made growing up as a woman inhabiting a male body very challenging.
But when she turned 15, Abby started to find answers. She discovered a Kabbalistic text that “for the first time ever gave me any sense that who I am might be valid at all, and specifically within the context of Judaism.”
Abby, an ordained rabbi, has since left the hasidic community and made a Jewish life of her own, a process she describes in her book, “Becoming Eve.”
In the following video, Abby Stein explains three texts that have helped her make sense of her own identity as a trans Jewish woman.
“While I don’t think that we need text to justify who we are…I do think that [texts] create something so beautiful and powerful,” she told the Forward.
“I’m hoping that looking at these texts and sharing them could help us all, if we wish, to find a space for us within Judaism to learn not to tolerate who we are, but to celebrate who we are.”
Watch Abby Stein’s video here:
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
