LGBT

In a 1st, a Transgender Person is Campus President of this Jewish Sorority

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Jan 9, 2019 | Community, LGBT, Schools

(JTA) — In December, the Jewish sorority at the University of Cincinnati elected a new president. The new leader was a founding member of the campus group who was highly involved in Jewish life at the university. But the 21-year-old’s election was surprising in at...

This College Student Created a Way for Nonbinary People to Speak Hebrew

by Ben Sales, JTA | Nov 19, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Religion

(JTA) — Some college students who think about becoming rabbis aren’t sure whether they will want to work in a synagogue or school. Others get hung up on which seminary to attend or denomination to join. Lior Gross had a different dilemma: How to speak Hebrew in...

A Jewish Group Builds Community for Transgender and Nonbinary Teens

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Oct 23, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT

NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up, Devin Goldstein often felt alienated from Judaism. The 17-year-old recalls having to wear traditionally feminine outfits when the family attended synagogue. That was painful for Goldstein, who has since come out as transgender. “It meant I...

Coming Out and Being Accepted

by Maia Bar-Am | Sep 28, 2018 | Community, LGBT, Religion

Almost a dozen years ago, I moved to Baltimore from Durham, N.C., with my husband and our three young children. We wanted to live in a larger Jewish community, and I liked Baltimore right away. But underneath my happiness, something occasionally made me feel...

Gay and African-American Rabbi Wants to Shatter Stereotypes of What a Jew Looks Like

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Jul 17, 2018 | Community, LGBT, Religion

NEW YORK (JTA) — As a Jew of color, Rabbi Georgette Kennebrae has had her fair share of experiences that have made her feel less than welcome in the Jewish community. People sometimes assume that she is a member of the synagogue janitorial staff rather than the rabbi....

This Orthodox Rabbi Just Took a Job at an LGBT Synagogue

by Ben Sales, JTA | Jun 26, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Religion, Spirituality

NEW YORK (JTA) — In many ways, Mike Moskowitz is a typical haredi Orthodox rabbi. He wears a black suit and black hat. He sports a thick, curly beard beneath a closely shaved head. He peppers his speech with liturgical Hebrew and Yiddish words. He quotes from Jewish...

This Video Will Feature Women and Transgender Jews Teaching You How to Wear Tefillin

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Apr 10, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Religion, Spirituality

(JTA) — Rachel Putterman never learned how to put on tefillin when she was younger, so when she enrolled in rabbinical school, she consulted with fellow students. But the 52-year-old couldn’t quite get the hang of how to properly align the leather straps and tiny...

This Teen Had a Gender Neutral B’nei Mitzvah

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Mar 2, 2018 | Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Parenting, Religion

(JTA) — When Esther Thorpe came out as non-binary a year ago, identifying neither as male nor female, Miriam Taylor Thorpe was worried. Esther’s mother already had a child come out as gay and feared that Esther, 14, would have trouble finding a Jewish community...

Quick 5: A Taste for Inclusion

by Simone Ellin, Associate Editor | Mar 1, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Religion

On March 13, at 6:30 p.m., Roland Park’s Bolton Street Synagogue will partner with JQ Baltimore, a nonprofit serving Baltimore’s LGBTQ community, to host the area’s fourth annual LGBTQ Community Passover seder. Jmore recently spoke with BSS’s Rabbi Andy Gordon about...

Jewish Transgender Activist Speaks in Baltimore

by Aliza Friedlander | Feb 15, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Religion, Spirituality

At the age of 26, Abby Stein says she’s finally living as her authentic self. “Even two years since the first time I walked out as a woman, it feels amazing to be perceived as who you are and not afraid of people mis-gendering you,” says Stein, who came out as a...