Liberating Gender for Jews and Allies: The Wisdom of Transkeit

This extraordinary collection of essays by trans Jews and allies explores cutting-edge ideas about gender through the lenses of tradition, art, autobiography, and solidarity. It features an analysis of Biblical and Rabbinic thinking, sample rituals, guidance on Jewish practice, spoken word poetry, music, trans Jewish history, psychology, and personal stories. The contributing voices are richly diverse and include transpioneer Kate Bornstein, a drag queen rabbi, Jews by Choice, Jews of Color, the Jewish consultant to the show Transparent, Orthodox Jews, a Jewish priestess, and a Metropolitan Community Church minister. Each page reveals startling, fresh insights into the construction and disruption of gender from a Jewish perspective.

Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman coordinates the Jewish Roundtable at the Pacific School of Religion’s Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies, which sponsors cutting-edge speakers on queer and Jewish issues and convenes conferences and strategic summits for groups such as trans Jews, LGBTQ rabbis, and Jewish queerspawn. Litman’s book, Lifecycles 2: Jewish Women on Scriptural Themes in Contemporary Life, co-edited with Rabbi Debra Orenstein, won a number of prestigious academic and community awards.

Rev. Jakob Hero-Shaw coordinates the Transgender Roundtable at the Pacific School of Religion’s Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies, and is a faculty member for the Trans Seminarian Leadership Cohort. He is the Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Tampa.

"This book is one of many that can deepen allies’ understanding and ability to support people who are trans. [...] Its scope is broad. Different readers will most likely find different chapters enlightening, as is often the case with conference presentations."

Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, Rabbi Emerita of Beth Am, The People’s Temple, New York

Levi Ethan Alter

Emily Aviva Kapor-Mater

Marla Brettschneider

Mya Byrne

Noach Dzmura

Fern Feldman

Susan Goldberg

Zebulon Hurst

Irwin Keller

Surat-Shaan Knan

Joy Ladin