Scalene Onixxx, right, gestures while seated beside Athena Kills as they read to kids during Drag Queen Story Hour at Cellar Door Books in Riverside, Calif., on June 22, 2019. Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

By Rabbi Becky Silverstein, Idit Klein, Rabbi Danya RuttenbergMarch 9, 2023

Re “Tennessee’s new anti-drag laws would make Purim celebrations illegal” by Mordechai Levovitz

To the editor:

The op-ed “Tennessee’s new anti-drag laws would make Purim celebrations illegal” by Mordechai Levovitz is both misleading and distracting from the real and urgent issues that need our attention: threats to trans dignity and rights. The choice of title in particular is inaccurate at best and demeaning at worst.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Bans on drag and gender presentations that violate conventional norms are attacks on trans people. Over 400 bills in 39 states have been introduced in just the first two months of 2023 that seek to restrict the rights of transgender people, in addition to the many passed in recent years. Over 300 of these bills target children: banning access to bathrooms, sports teams, and health care. Others have begun targeting trans adults. We would have welcomed a piece by Levovitz alerting Jewish communities to the extreme danger that trans people are facing across the country — including, yes, trans Jews. Instead, Levovitz chose to center cisgender Jewish men who might engage in drag one day a year.

We do a disservice to ourselves as Jews and to the world at large when looking through a Jewish lens means that we forget who is truly harmed and miss the scale of harm. Our central question should be: What is the obligation of the Jewish community at this moment, as we see law after law harming the transgender community?

As the story of Purim — and the rest of our history — teaches us, silence and complicity are not the answer.

— Rabbi Becky Silverstein
(he/him) Co-Director, Trans Halakha Project

— Idit Klein
(she/her) President & CEO, Keshet

— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
(she/her) Scholar-in-Residence, National Council of Jewish Women

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount