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
Maracas shaking. Cooking pots clanging. A small, pink accordion being played.
These were the “alarms” sounded by environmental activists, from toddlers to grandmothers, at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Amphitheater on Thursday morning. About 50 people, representing the East Bay Jewish community and other local groups, called for President Joe Biden to stop the rerouting of the Line 3 oil pipeline.
The 1,000-mile pipeline, built in the late 1960s, carries crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisconsin. The Canadian company that operates the pipeline plans to replace portions and extend it by 337 miles in northern Minnesota, doubling the capacity of oil it can carry to 790,000 barrels per day.