A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stern College: Gender Transition and Jewish Ethics

50 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 QUEER SPIRITUALITY AND POLITICS AFunnyThingHappenedontheWaytoSternCollege: GenderTransitionandJewishEthics by Joy Ladin Joy Ladin, David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English at Stern College of Yeshiva University, is the author of four books of poetry, including the recent Transmigration and Psalms, and numerous essays. I n 2003, as a bearded, kippah- and tzitzit-wearing man, I joined the faculty of Stern College. In spring 2007, after receiving tenure, I informed my dean that I would return the next semester as a woman. Stern is part of Yeshiva University, modern Orthodox Judaism’s premiere institution of higher learning, and Orthodox Judaism, like most traditional religions, classifies the things transsexuals do to fit our bodies to our souls as sins. As someone born male, my sins includedwearingwomen’sclothingandtakinghormonesthatdestroyed my fertility. I was also violating customs and conceptions of gender that are held to with religious conviction by many OrthodoxJews. Iwassurethatcomingoutastranswouldendmyemployment by Yeshiva University, but after months when I was forbidden to set foot on campus, the unthinkable happened. When my LambdaattorneysdemandedthatIbeallowedtoreturntoteaching , the university said yes. We spent the summer negotiating the conditions of my return—including which bathrooms I would be permittedtouse.Finally,Septemberarrived.Afteryearsofshame and hiding, I was finally going to stand before my students and colleagues as the person I knew myself to be. More importantly, after millennia of intolerance, an institution representing Orthodox Judaism was about to welcome an openly transgender employee. As I walked through the halls, I kept waiting for something to happen—formytransitiontomattertosomeone.Itdidn’t.Teachersrushedtoandfromclasses ,studentstalkedoncellphonesand swayed back and forth in prayer. I wasn’t something to stare at; I wasjustanothermiddle-agedwomangoingaboutherbusiness. But to the New York Post, I was news. The article was splashed acrosspagethree: Literature Professor Joy Ladin, formerly known as Jay Ladin,47,showedupforherfirstdayofschoolsportingpink lipstick, a tight purple shirt and a flirty black skirt.… Many at the Jewish university are horrified by the presence of the transgenderprofessor. Conservative Orthodox Reactions The university maintained official silence about me, but the Post found a faculty member who was willing to voice Orthodox“horror”atmypresence:RabbiMosheTendler,who,as the Post noted, is “a senior dean at Yeshiva’s rabbinical school and a professor of biology and medical ethics.” Rabbi Tendler didn’t mince words: “He’s not a woman. He’s a male with enlarged breasts … He’s a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for.” Rabbi Tendler’s comments suggest a startling (for a professor of biology and medical ethics) ignorance of the complexities of gender and, as a number of Orthodox commentators noted, violate Jewish laws that require that individuals be spoken of with respect and compassion. But Rabbi Tendler’s impolitic remarks express feelings that are alive and well in the Orthodox world—feelings that are a fact of life for transgendered Jews living in Orthodox communities , and which must be acknowledged in any meaningful dialogueaboutgenderidentityissuesandJudaism. Gender identity is so central to traditional Judaism that it is more or less impossible for traditional Jewish communities to accommodate those who aren’t simply male or female. I can’t even participate in a traditional Jewish religious service, where men and women sit separately, without identifying myself as male or female. Such concerns aren’t limited to the Orthodox world. They are mirrored in feminist debates over whether transwomen shouldbewelcomedatwomen-onlyevents,groups,andspaces. But Rabbi Tendler isn’t only worried about what I am; he is worried about what I mean. Gender is a language through which wecommunicateourselvestoothers.ForRabbiTendler,mypresentationofmyselfasfemaledidn ’tsaythatIwasawoman—itsaid that I “represent a kind of amorality,” that I reject the very categories that enable us to order and judge reality. Male and female, light and dark, good and evil—such absolute distinctions are the basis of traditional moralities. If, as my transition proclaims , a man can “be” a woman, then there are no stable, fixed categories,andthusnobasisformoraljudgment. Never underestimate the power of a tight purple shirt and a flirtyblackskirt. I’ve agonized over the moral implications of transsexuality more than Rabbi Tendler ever...