Trans Rights in Judaism
The role of transgender people in Judaism has become increasingly prominent in recent years as the issue of trans rights in general society has also gotten more and more attention. Recently, Talia Avrahami, a transgender woman who considers herself to be an ultra-Orthodox Jew, left her position teaching social studies at an Orthodox Jewish day school in Brooklyn after an uproar among the parent body and in the local Jewish community over her status as transgender. According to The Times of Israel, the teacher “was attacked on social media, community sites ran stories with accusatory headlines, and she started receiving harassing messages from strangers.” Despite this treatment in the Brooklyn community, the Orthodox Jewish community in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood has been “overwhelmingly supportive” and accepts her, her husband, and baby as community members. She has noted how she follows the major religious tenets expected of married ultra-Orthodox Jewish women: observing Shabbat, eating only kosher food, wearing skirts, and covering her hair with a wig. She has elaborated, “I’m an Orthodox Jewish woman who happens to be transgender, just like there are Orthodox Jewish women out there who happen to have red hair.”
This is not an isolated instance, but represents the challenges faced by transgender people in some segments of Jewish society. As another example, a transgender man reported having been booted from an Israeli yeshiva to which he had traveled from another country to learn. He explained that the school’s halakhic authority had accepted him to study there knowing his transgender status. Yet when an anonymous email message was sent to the school’s rabbis informing them of his transgender status, the school kicked him out.
Halakhic views on the place of transgender people within Judaism have been mixed. Some rely on commandments in the Torah to conclude that the gender one is biologically born with is immutable and trans rights should therefore not be supported. In particular, they cite the Torah’s prohibition on cross-dressing (“A man’s attire shall not be on a woman, nor may a man wear a woman’s garment,” Deuteronomy 22:5) to conclude that people born biologically male should not be supported in transitioning to women and people born biologically female should not be supported in transitioning to men. They also cite the Torah’s prohibition on castrating animals—which is understood by the Talmud to apply to humans—to conclude that gender reassignment surgery and hormonal treatments are forbidden.
Others see gender in Judaism as mutable and would place the decision as to someone’s gender status in their own hands, thereby supporting trans rights. To show that gender is neither binary nor static, they point to the earliest moments in the Torah when Adam was first created with both male and female aspects (before Eve was separated from Adam as a woman). They also take the position that a transgender person is not violating the Torah’s prohibition on cross-dressing: If someone thinks they are a woman and dresses as a woman, that is acceptable, just as it is for someone who thinks they are a man and dresses as a man. In other important contexts, they note that the Talmud allows people to make certain critical religious decisions for themselves. Most poignantly, the Talmud explains that a sick person can properly decide for themselves not to fast on Yom Kippur, as otherwise required. Later rabbinic authorities, including Rashi, have elaborated that an individual’s self-knowledge about their body overrides experts who might conclude otherwise. Rabbi Becky Silverstein draws on these sources to conclude that Judaism “authorizes as experts … trans people seeking gender-affirming care or the right to live as their true selves.” Others, such as Rabbi David Meyer, point to the Talmud and other Jewish sources’ references to at least six categories of gender (including those who appear female at birth but later take on more male biology) to suggest that “Jewish understanding of gender is neither binary nor even a grid into which every person must be forced to fit” but is instead a “spectrum.” Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, a leading Orthodox Jewish rabbi, also concluded that a person’s gender was to be determined by their current anatomy, even if it differed from their anatomy at birth. Other rabbinic authorities point to the Jewish commandment to save a life above all to allow gender transition for those so distressed by gender dysphoria as to consider taking their own lives.
It might not be surprising that the more conservative sects of Judaism (such as Orthodox Judaism) are the most likely to reject trans rights. And similarly, it might be expected that the more liberal elements of Judaism (such as Conservative and Reform Judaism) tend to be more supportive of trans rights. That is generally true, though some segments of Orthodox Judaism have grown more supportive of trans rights over time, just as they have with sexuality issues. But what might be most surprising is that ultra-Orthodox Judaism can be more accommodating of transgender people than one might expect, as Talia Avrahami’s story attests. As one of her friends emphasized in the news coverage, “being transgender in the religious community can actually be gender-affirming because some conventions are clearly defined.”
All in all, the greatest difference in the halakhic positions for and against trans rights is whether to understand gender as something that is grounded in a biological determination at birth that cannot be changed or to allow an individual to choose their gender based on their mental state at a particular moment (or based on gender reassignment surgery or hormonal changes they undertake). This tension of how to understand gender is not purely Jewish in nature but is reflected in the current debate in broader society on transgender rights. What is most crucial in Judaism is to find ways to accept and support those who want to be a part of it, including transgender Jews. Hopefully, Judaism will become increasingly accommodating, just as is happening in society more broadly.
