Transgender Jewish Professor To Speak At Montclair's Bnai Keshet: May 13

Montclair, NJ – Poet and scholar Joy Ladin will present a free, public talk titled “How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Transgender in a Binary Jewish World,” at Bnai Keshet in Montclair, 99 S. Fullerton Ave., from 8 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, May 13.

Ladin, a professor at Yeshiva University, will present a talk titled: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: What’s Holy in the Holiness Code,” from 9 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, followed by a teen dialogue from 11 a.m. to noon, and conduct a poetry reading, lunch and conversation at Bnai Keshet’s Shabbat service from 12:30 to 2 p.m.

According to a news release, Ladin has published essays and poetry including: Coming to Life (named “one of the five most important Jewish poetry books of 2010” by The Forward) and Psalms, Transmigration (2009 Lambda Literary Award finalist). She is also the author of Who Will Be: A Woman Caught in the Act of Becoming, a forthcoming collection of autobiographical essays on gender transition.

According to event organizers, Ladin’s 2007 return to teaching at Yeshiva University as a woman after years of teaching as a man made Yeshiva the first Orthodox Jewish institution to employ an openly transgender employee.

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Photo courtesy of Bnai Keshet