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My decision to not write about leaving the paper had an unexpected consequence, one I hadn’t considered in my months of thought and regret: it left space for reconciliation.
My first encounter with a hyper-masculine Israeli man was on my Birthright trip in the summer of 2017. He was a soldier – stout, muscular, uniformed – paired with my group as a part of mifgash for the whole 10 days we were there, and a few days into the trip he decided he would sit in the empty seat beside me on the bus.
As an Orthodox Jewish feminist, I’ve struggled my whole life with what feels to me to be stubbornly sexist interpretations of halacha and my own loyalty and love for observant Judaism. Mavoi Satum fights to protect the rights of women in the rabbinic courts, but does so from the basis of religious observance.
Growing up, immediately before I attended a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony, I was often filled with dread and embarrassment. I grew up in an interfaith household, and the only time I went to synagogue, other than when my family visited our more religious relatives, was to attend a friend or cousin’s b’nai mitzvah. I […]
Prayer is a form of direct action. Taking time out of our days to bless the act of waking up and eating food interrupts expected behavior.
Protest does not remove us from our Jewish people. Machlah, Noah, Choglah, Milcah, and Tirzah are our ancestors, too. Standing for what is right can create new Torah, can change the fabric of the world entirely, and in the process make us integral to that new world.
A few months after the Pittsburgh shooting, I had my first panic attack. It was triggered by something inconsequential, but my anxiety had been one the rise since that Shabbat. I could feel it in little moments—a rush through my chest, a clench in my stomach, a film behind my eyes.
Though JOOOT-affiliated independent groups lack the financial resources and name recognition of Hillel International, they offer students a powerful invitation: create the Judaism you want to be a part of. Kahn believes that JOOOT’s impact will extend far beyond the campus. “We’re giving people a taste of what the potential of radically inclusive Judaism can be,” he says.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, when I shouted “Close the camps!” and sang “Which Side Are You On,” a song I remembered from the Ferguson rebellion in my hometown of St. Louis when I was young, I meant it.
For me, being out as a trans person and standing in solidarity with others are not choices. They are ways of living that allow me to access the fullness of my own humanity and history, and that of others.