Requiring Brit Mikvah for female trans converts?

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Adina Lewittes

EVENT CO-SPONSORED BY:

ABOUT THE EVENT:

How does Jewish law, a system based on such binaries as muttar (permitted) and assur (prohibited) and hayav (obligated) and patur (exempt), inform our contemporary understanding of gender which is increasingly shaped by fluidity and in some cases hybridity? In this particular case, would a trans woman who has not had gender confirmation surgery be required to undergo a ritual circumcision as part of her conversion process? Does the mitzvah of brit milah apply only to those whose gender is male or to all those whose anatomy is male? What are the consequences – halakhic, theological and cultural – of the different perspectives on this question?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Rabbi Adina Lewittes founded Sha’ar, a northern NJ/NYC-based, values-driven Jewish community oriented around the call to societal, environmental and spiritual sustainability. For nearly twenty years, Sha’ar provided multiple gateways into Jewish life exemplified by a commitment to inclusiveness, diversity, innovation, scholarship, excellence and collaboration.

Adina recently served as the Scholar in Residence at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in NYC, a synagogue renowned for its commitment to social justice and spiritual activism. Adina is also a member of the senior rabbinic faculty of the Shalom Hartman Institute, and of the Board of Trustees of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School. In the Spring of 2022 she will serve on the faculty of the Rabbinical School at JTS teaching modern Jewish Law.

Previously, Adina served as the Assistant Dean of the Rabbinical School at JTS, and founded a synagogue in Englewood, New Jersey, modelling shared leadership and collective communal responsibility. Adina regularly enjoys speaking engagements in the US and Canada and publishing essays on topics including Jewish identity, modern Jewish law, leadership, Jewish innovation, sexual/gender diversity, multifaith/multiheritage marriage and engagement, and contemporary Jewish spirituality. She is married to Andi Lewittes, and has four children, two stepchildren, and one incredible dog.