This is the Forward’s coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, queer and questioning Jews.
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News Leiah Moser Challenges Progressive Jewish Feminism
When Leiah Moser began her gender transition last year, she found an unexpected cushion in rabbinical school, where many of her fellow students were trying on new identities and even new names. “All of my classmates are undergoing this intense, extreme process of transformation, and most of them feel just as challenged and confused about…
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News First Generation of Transgender Rabbis Claims Place at Bimah
When it comes to the acceptance of transgender Jews, the American Jewish community is itself in a moment of transition. In 2008, Joy Ladin became the public face of transgender Judaism when she transitioned from male to female after receiving tenure at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. Five years later, there are at least…
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News Emily Aviva Kapor: Creating a Jewish Community for Trans Women
The fact that she’s the only out transgender female rabbi doesn’t surprise 28-year-old Emily Aviva Kapor. It’s a reflection of sexism in the broader society, she said, paired with the fact that the Jewish feminist movement largely has overlooked trans women. “If I want to have an affirmative Judaism for all women, including trans women,”…
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News For Elliot Kukla, Gender Transition and Ordination Went Hand in Hand
“I don’t think it was an accident that I found myself coming out as trans at the same time that I found myself becoming ordained,” said Rabbi Elliot Kukla, the first out transgender rabbi to be ordained in 2006 at HUC-JIR’s Los Angeles campus. “There is a certain identity transition in becoming a rabbi that,…
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News Reuben Zellman’s Rabbinical Classmates Were ‘Unfailingly Supportive’
As the first out transgender student accepted at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in 2003, Reuben Zellman recalled reading about his historic admission in a local newspaper. “I realized I was the first transgender person I had ever seen in the media who was still alive,” he said. At the time, transgender issues barely…
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Fast Forward Philly Jewish Teacher Lauds Official’s Refusal To Defend Gay Marriage Ban
The Jewish teacher who sued to lift Pennsylvania’s gay marriage ban told the Forward that she is pleased that the state’s attorney general has refused to defend the law. “We are both incredibly delighted because it’s such good news for the case,” said Helena Miller, referring to her wife, Dara Raspberry. “We were both very…
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Fast Forward Pennsylvania Attorney General Refuses To Defend State in Gay Marriage Ban Case
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane refused on Thursday to fight a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuit is believed to be the first federal case since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that the U.S. government must recognize same-sex marriages in states…
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News Jewish Teacher Strikes New Blow in Gay Marriage Fight — Eyes Supreme Court
A Jewish school teacher from Philadelphia is a face of a new landmark lawsuit that could prompt a Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing same-sex marriage rights nationwide. Helena Miller, a lesbian whose wife is not recognized as a parent of their baby daughter, is one of more than 20 plaintiffs in a landmark federal lawsuit filed…
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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Opinion How Israel became a country where teenagers murder each other in cold blood
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Sports NBA coach Steve Kerr: ‘Israel sought revenge for Oct. 7 and now 72,000 Palestinians have been killed’
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Film & TV A new documentary challenges stereotypes about Orthodox Jewish women — and their wigs
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward A new Hebrew press in Berlin argues that Israel doesn’t own the language
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Fast Forward Jewish library and Chabad near Buenos Aires attacked, Argentine Jewish advocates say
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Fast Forward Cornell’s Jewish president clashes with students following on-campus debate about Israel
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Fast Forward U of Michigan apologizes after faculty chair praises pro-Palestinian students during commencement speech