Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community

Book review from the South Florida Gay News: A mechitza is a barrier that separates men from women in Orthodox Jewish synagogues and at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Transgender Jews, especially the observant ones, “balance on the mechitza” that separates the genders actually and symbolically. In Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community, editor Noach Dzmura collected an assortment of “spiritual autobiography, rituals, text study, assistance for community organizing, and theory to advance the idea and the practical reality of transgender inclusion in mainstream and queer Jewish spaces. The book provides classical Jewish texts with traditional and activist interpretations that support and validate transgender lives.” Among the contributors to Balancing on the Mechitza are trans Jews like Bornstein, Aaron Devor and Martin Rawlings-Fein as well as some supportive, non-transgender women. On the other hand, there are no contributions from non-transgender men (no surprise) and only two submissions from Orthodox Jews both written by Beth Orens, a trans woman who literally “crossed the mechitza.”