Transgender tribe meets in Berkeley

In film, books, blogs and newspaper articles, transgender Jews have focused mainly on identity and inclusion — or barriers to it.

But at the upcoming Jewish Transgender Gathering in Berkeley, the focus is on spirituality.

Not only will the emphasis of the three-day gathering be on Torah, but “Torah that has never been talked about in this way,” Reconstructionist Rabbi David Bauer pointed out.

Bauer is the West coast director of Nehirim, which developed the Nov. 2-4 conference with several partner organizations. It will be held at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, and it will coincide with the area’s first Muslim transgender gathering and the larger Transgender Religious Leadership Summit, now in its sixth year.

Nehirim is a national nonprofit that works on building community for LGBT Jews, partners and allies. It was founded in 2004 by writer Jay Michaelson, author of “God vs. Gay” and three other books.

The Jewish transgender conference will begin on Friday evening with a Shabbat service led by Rabbi Reuben Zellman and poet Joy Ladin, followed by a Shabbat dinner and what is billed as a “Heart Circle.” The circle and other events are closed sessions, for the transgender Jewish community only, but other sessions are open.

As far as organizers can tell, the Jewish transgender gathering is the first conference of its kind, said Noach Dzmura, executive assistant and director of educational technology at Starr King School of the Ministry.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Zellman, assistant rabbi and music director at Congregation Beth El in Berkeley. “Before I went to rabbinical school over 10 years ago, nobody talked about these things.”

Dzmura, who is known for editing the book “Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community,” will team up with Ladin to lead a session titled “Face Time with God: A New Look at the Psalms.” Ladin will also lead Torah study on Saturday morning.

Ladin is a widely published poet and a Yeshiva University professor — “probably the only openly transgender person at any Orthodox institution in the world,” she said.

Other sessions include “Being a Jewish Gender Outlaw” (led by Ariel Vegosen, a fair trade and media social justice activist who identifies as genderqueer); “Being Transgender Is Kosher: Beyond the Binary in Ancient Jewish Texts” (led by Rabbi Dev Noily of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont and one-time transgender law specialist Ben Lunine from Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco); and “Does Judaism Love Your Body?” (led by Rabbi David Dunn, founder and coordinator of “The Jewish Queer Sexual Ethics Project” at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion).

“There is no question that Jewish vision provides ample paradigms for what it means to be open to transformation and change,” Zellman said. “Judaism itself is always changing and always will be. We are instructed every day to remember the Exodus. That the way we are now is not the way it always has to be.”