Transgender Professor at Yeshiva U. -- Mazel Tov!

Two weeks ago at Yeshiva University, English professor Joy Ladin, Ph.D., returned to work after a two-year leave. Ladin is transgender -- she was formerly Jay Ladin -- making Y.U. the first religiously conservative university in the United States with a transgender faculty member, according to Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Ladin, who is Jewish and describes herself as "practicing," teaches at the women's undergraduate school. She had been granted tenure immediately before she told the school about her gender identity in 2006.

This is big news. If the average American isn't too sure what "transgender" means, think of how much more strongly this will hit among most Orthodox Jews, who have yet to invite over a gay man or lesbian for Friday night flanken and matzah ball soup.

("Transgender" is an umbrella term used to describe people whose sense of themselves as male or female differs from that associated with their birth sex. Some transgender people -- transsexuals -- live or wish to live as members of the gender opposite to their birth sex. According to the American Psychological Association, about 1 in 10,000 biological males and 1 in 30,000 biological females engage in cross-dressing. Not all transgender people, however, are cross-dressers.)

Yeshiva University, located in Manhattan, is technically secular. With over seven thousand students, it encompasses a medical school (Einstein), law school (Cardozo), school of social work (Wurzweiler), and other renowned graduate programs that are not specifically Jewish and in which most students are not Jewish.

But in a practical sense, Y.U. is a Jewish institution. Its motto is the Hebrew "Torah U'Maddah" -- Torah combined with secular knowledge." The university includes undergraduate and high school campuses, where the curricula conform to Orthodox Jewish principles. All the undergrads and high school students are Jewish, primarily Orthodox. Even in the secular graduate programs, Orthodox Judaism is in the air: classes are not held on Shabbat or Jewish holidays, and only kosher food is permitted. Most Orthodox Jews consider Y.U.'s rabbinical seminary to be the most prestigious in the U.S.

So why was Ladin -- who was put on indefinite leave after she told the university that she wanted to transition to female -- back on campus? Because New York City prohibits the firing of employees based on gender identity. Legally, Y.U. may not have had a choice. Ethically, Y.U. does have a choice -- to treat Ladin with respect, or to make her feel unwanted and abnormal. Richard Joel, president of the university, has declined to comment specifically about Ladin but did say, "I'm proud of my university and all my faculty."

Then there's the more prevalent attitude. The reaction of Rabbi Moshe Tendler, an Orthodox rabbi and a senior dean at the rabbinical school, says it all. "He's not a woman. He's a male with enlarged breasts," Tendler told the New York Post, pointedly referring to Ladin as male even though she identifies as female and is taking progesterone and estrogen to feminize her appearance. "He's a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual." Tendler, who is also a professor of biology and medical ethics, continued, "There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics, and Torah morality."

Tendler also spoke with the Jerusalem Post, saying, "I think a teacher that behaves in so aberrant a way must also impinge on the moral conscience of the student body" and that "we should reserve the right to be judgmental when someone violates the basic tenets of society."

Within Orthodox Judaism, everything comes down to what is permitted and what is forbidden by Jewish law. As a member of an Orthodox community myself, I have enormous respect for Jewish law, which guides my life in huge and small ways every day, every hour. If Tendler can make a persuasive argument that Jewish law forbids being transgender, I would listen carefully. But expressing contempt and disgust for another human being (a widely respected member of the faculty, no less) is never permitted. To my mind, Tendler's comments about Ladin serve more than anything else to devalue his authority as a Jewish leader.

There is ample evidence that the great rabbis have long recognized the limits of the male and female categories. In the first two centuries of the Common Era, the rabbis of the Mishnah identified at least four possible genders or sexes. In addition to male and female, they claimed, there are two sexes that are neither male nor female, called the tumtum (person whose genitals are obscured, making their gender uncertain) and the androgynos (person who has aspects of both male and female genitalia). According to one interpretation, the first human being was an androgynos. The rabbis even discussed two other categories for gender identity that don't appear at birth but develop later in life.

Traditional Judaism privileges categories and boundaries--the demarcations between work and Shabbat, kosher and not kosher, obligated and not obligated. But some things defy categories altogether, or have fuzzy boundaries. Not everything is airtight, even with seemingly obvious binaries. We light Shabbat candles eighteen minutes before sunset; the question of whether or not Shabbat restrictions begin at candle-lighting or at sunset continues to be debated. On Passover, Sephardi Jews eat rice and corn, foods that Ashkenazi Jews shun as not kosher during the holiday; so are those foods kosher for Passover or not?

In daily life, we regularly encounter in-between zones. In fact, the rabbis celebrated these spaces and moments. They spent hours analyzing dawn and dusk, those times when it's not really day and not really night.

In-between zones offer the greatest opportunity to behave in holy ways -- and that includes being respectful of all people, even if they make you uncomfortable.

Comments

[Shybiker]

Ideally, this can be a "teachable moment" -- an opportunity for people who lack understanding of the fluidity of gender to learn about those whose lives differ from the conventional view. There is, in fact, much to learn about this subject and if you don't know that, you're among those who need education.

One place to start is the recent best-selling memoir by Jennifer Finney Boylan, an English professor at Colby College who transitioned from male-to-female ("She's Not There"). http://www.randomhouse.com/features/shesnotthere/

Those who condemn transsexuals, without careful consideration of the complex subject of social gender roles, are merely displaying ignorance. Public discussion of the subject can be better than that.

[LintLass]

Don't, by the way, presume the experience of transsexuals is an entirely social artifact, or to do with sexuality, which is how Biblical assessments of the situation tend to presume things are.

The article actually misphrases the notion that '1 in 10,000 males cross-dress.' I think what it meant to say was that 1 in 10,000 assigned males, (as of some pretty old statistics based on certain older definitions) live in the opposite gender role as transsexuals.

Considering that there are actual indications that trans people have developmental variations in the brain which are distinct from birth-gender-identified gay people, and it appears that endocrine disrupting chemicals (like, perhaps, those bisphenols of recent comment) can pretty reliably make transgendered lab animals, ...this isn't just about social factors or sexuality, ....

Though if you are familiar with LBGT caregiving, transgendered youth are at high risk *because* of the social factors for everything from poverty, substance abuse, being subject to exploitive sexwork conditions, and even suicide.

Cross-dressing per se is orders of maginitude more common. Diagnoseable transsexuals are closer to one in 1 thousand than one in ten thousand, more likely. Whatever statistics about this sort of thing can be worth.

Just for clarity. This sort of thing only tends to make the news when a transsexual is in a potential position of prominence, or gets murdered in a splashy way. It goes a lot deeper than the general prurient interest or theology. .

[Leora Tanenbaum - Huffpost Blogger]

I agree, Shybiker. The problem here is that we are discussing a conservative, religious institution--and as a result, public discussion on many topics (not only the fluidity of gender) is stifled.

[Gershon]

I think perhaps you are oversimplifying the situation. The professor clearly knew that by announcing her change that she would upset the university and waited until YU couldn't do anything about it. In a way that, in my mind, was more disrespectful then anything anyone could say. I don't think it was necessary.

I think that the Jewish communities laws should be respected at the very least on campus. I'm not saying that gay, lesbian, or transgender individuals should not be allowed to work in YU's facilities; rather if they choose to that they should keep their private lives private. One would expect the same from a heterosexual teacher.

This might pose a challenge for transgender, but that is something that one should consider. Tolerance needs to go both ways.

[Leora Tanenbaum - Huffpost Blogger]

Heterosexual professors do not keep their heterosexuality private. Regarding Ladin's timing, it appears that she was strategic to insure her job security. I think that's what anyone in her situation would have done.

[Gershon]

Why? Homosexuality is contrary to Jewish law. By being open with their sexuality they are essentially spitting on the institution that they chose to work for. What Ladin did was disrespectful and she knew what she was doing would upset a lot of people.

[CelticDragon]

Good for Prof. Ladin!! Best wishes to her as she goes through transition.