Abigail Fisher
May 16, 2021
In honor of Shavuot, a holiday celebrating receiving the Torah, I spoke with Rabbi Becky Silverstein and Laynie Soloman about the ways they are helping queer and trans Jews receive and create Torah in new ways.
The Trans Halakha project, which is housed at Svara: a Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, aims to provide trans Jews with a framework within which to develop meaningful Jewish practice that affirms their identities as trans folks. Silverstein and Soloman share the ways that Jewish learning that includes queer and trans Jews not only enriches the lives of those individuals, but ripples outward to strengthen surrounding communities. The word Halakha itself comes from the hebrew root
Honors
Sen. Scott Wiener
State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco has been named chair of the California Senate Mental Health Caucus, “which focuses on improving California’s resources for mental health and substance abuse disorders,” according to a press release from his office. Wiener has also been named Legislator of the Year by the California Marriage and Family Therapists for his work on Senate Bill 855, which “has made California a nationwide leader in mental health care,” according to the press release.
Zoe Fertik of Palo Alto has been accepted into the Jewish Women Scholars’ Writing Fellowship, a new program of Yeshivat Maharat, which is best known for ordaining women as Orthodox clergy, and Sefaria, the online repository of Jewish texts. “The shelves of the Beit Midrash are overwhelmingly dominated by books and articles written by men we want to change that,” says the fellowship website. “The fellowship aims to elevate Jewish women’s scholarship by b