I had a great realization the other day that transgendered people and Jews By Choice  (JBC) are the ultimate allies.

Born In The Wrong Body

Ask most JBCs about their decision to convert to Judaism and you’ll get the reply, “I felt Jewish.” This sense “inside” that a person is Jewish is very close to the feeling that trans people feel when deciding to transition into their life as the opposite sex from which they were born. A trans person does not feel that they are “changing” so much as they feel they are living as who they really are. As with JBCs, there is a belief that the soul has finally realized its true destiny by living Jewishly.

Altering The Body

With trans people, there is a clear desire to alter the physical body to meet the needs of the person’s psychological gender. Sex changes, mastectomy, facial reconstruction, laser hair removal and simple things like makeup and clothing choices are a way that trans people resolve their gender needs.

In the same way, it is demanded of converts to Judaism that the process of immersing in water (mikvah) and for men, circumcision or the alternate ritual (hatafat dam brit) be taken to finalize the Jewish process.

Meeting Societal Needs

Both JBCs and trans people receive scrutiny from the larger society, attempting to gain acceptance in their “new” identity. Within their own communities, this process involves a Rabbinical Court (beit din) for Jews and for transgendered people, the Standards of Care, a psychological process developed by gender identity pioneer Dr. Harry Benjamin.

Even when someone finishes the physical transformation deemed necessary to become Jewish or change gender identities, particular elements of the community will continue to ostracize these people. Even though Judaism has a long standing tradition stemming from the Talmud that a convert should never be “pointed out” or made to feel less in the community, the reality is that converts to Judaism are never quite “in the secret club”. Too with trans people is there a natural “otherness” quality that society cannot shake from its collective need to see gender in one box or another. This leads to a bigger issue: breaking binary.

Breaking Binary

Gender identity, especially in the trans world, is complicated. What is a “tranny dyke” in relationship to a “mtf queer womyn”? What does a “drag king” not have in common with a “cross-dresser”? Included in this issue is the physical aspects of gender identity. If a FTM transsexual has his breasts removed, his face chiseled to be more masculine, grows facial hair, but continues to have a vagina, is this person “truly” male? The same with MTFs: does a penis destroy femininity?

While there are many who believe that the world is broken down into Jews vs. non-Jews, it’s clear that Jewish identity is more involved than that. Beyond labels like reform, conservative and orthodox, there are galaxies of Jewish identities; Baal Teshuva, Conservadox, “Just Jewish”, secular, unaffiliated, Jewish agnostic are a few. And like the physical aspects of transgender-ism, so too do converts to Judaism have similar issues. Does a convert to the Reform tradition who continues to eat bacon but went through the circumcision and mikvah have more “Jewish cred” than someone who joins the growing Humanist Jewish movement through an adoption ceremony instead of the bygone rituals? Does a Reconstructionist who holds a philosophical idea of G-d but rejects the hatafat dam brit have less of a place in the Jewish world than someone who prays (davens) at a Conservative synagogue but is really an atheist?

This, above all others, is what Jews By Choice and trans people challenge: the sense that there is only one right way: in order to be Jewish, you have to perform XYZ ritual and get a consensus among the learned. And once you are “approved” for your new life, you must live it in only a certain way. The same if you are “becoming” a man or a woman.

My only hope is that JBCs and trans people will continue to challenge authority and to stake their claim in both worlds, not just for their sake and the sake of other people in their position, but also to change their worlds around them.

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