diaTribe Review: Celebrating Judaism beyond the binary in "Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community"
Guest Post | Jun 27, 2010
http://tcjewfolk.com/diatribe-review-balancing-mechitza-transgender-jewish-community/This is a guest post by Amy Gavel, Jewish Educator and coordinator of NOAZIM, Mount Zion Temple's 20s/30s group.
After a nasty kidney stone a few years ago, I staffed the Mount Zion 11th grade trip to New York with a raging bladder infection. You may have noticed that public bathrooms in NYC are few and far between, and women's restrooms always have a line. You may know a bladder infection can make finding a bathroom a matter of extreme urgency. In utter desperation, I often found myself noting, "oh, urinal" on my way into the first available stall and had frequent opportunity to recite asher yatzar, the blessing for after using the facilities. The experience was a dramatic reminder of the binary bathroom divide, and that in our culture there is a gender line we know we aren't supposed to cross.
41WIBEmczUL. SL500 AA300 diaTribe Review: Celebrating Judaism beyond the binary in Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish CommunityWritten "for transgender . . .Jews," allies, and "those for whom the very thought. . .is deeply disturbing," an outstanding community of authors join together in Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community, edited by Noach Dzmura (North Atlantic Books, June 2010).
