Beth Am Welcomes Joy Ladin

Professor of English at Yeshiva University and Author on Jewish and Transgender Identity

Joy Ladin holds the Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University, and, in 2007, became the first (and still only) openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution. Her memoir, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award; her recent book, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, was a Lambda Literary Award and Triangle Award finalist. She has also published nine books of poetry. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship, and two Hadassah Brandeis Institute Research Fellowships, among other honors.

A nationally nationally recognized speaker on trans and Jewish identity, she serves on the Board of Keshet, an organization devoted to full inclusion of LGBTQ Jews in the Jewish world. Links to her writing are available at joyladin.wordpress.com.

We will have two opportunities to learn from Professor Ladin over the weekend:

• Friday, October 23, 6:15 PM, Sanctuary: Jewish + Transgender = ?
   

• Saturday, October 24, 9:00 AM, Beit Kehillah: The Voice is the Voice of Jacob, but the Hands Are the Hands of Esau: Recognizing Trans Experience in the Torah and in Our Lives