Shows
Yenta!Orthodykes Learn Torah: What Does The Torah Say About Being Nonbinary?Introducing our new four part miniseries!!! The Orthodykes are back, and now we're a sexy yeshiva!Each episode will feature these four luminaries of the queer Jewish world (Antonia Lassar, Raye Schiller, Leah Forster, Melissa Weisz) and will cover a new Torah question. This week we've decided to stop being so cis, and we're talking nothing but nonbinary! (BTW, apologies for the wonky audio, we're optimizing that for next episode. Thanks bbs.)And we're giving a huge Yenta thank you to The Queerkeit Initiative for funding this series.2025-02-131h 08
Can't Stop ScrollingTorah as a Seed: Laynie SolomanLaynie Soloman chats with us about the Torah of Magneto, falling in love with Talmud, and ideal cupcake-eating strategies.Primary Source: Bamidbar Rabbah 19:72024-12-3142 min
EvolveFor Us, By Us: The Trans Halakhah ProjectHalakhah is for Orthodox Jews. It means Jewish law: what you can do and can’t do. Right? Not according to Laynie Soloman, a passionate teacher of Jewish text and thought at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. Soloman says that Halakhah isn’t law, per se, since law – especially when it comes to queer and trans folks – can serve as an instrument of oppression. Rather, Soloman speaks of Halakhah as “Jewish practice and its surrounding discourse,” i.e. what Jews do. Soloman discusses SVARA’s Trans Halakhah Project, which seeks to empower trans Jews. Soloman talks with hosts Bryan Schwartzman ab...2023-11-3051 min
On the NoseTrans HalakhaEarlier this year, the Trans Halakha Project—an initiative of SVARA, a queer and trans yeshiva—published a series of teshuvot, or answers to questions about halakha (Jewish religious law). These pieces speak to questions of Jewish life and practice for trans people, from who is obligated to undergo circumcision or to follow the prescriptions around menstruation, to whether it’s permissible to wear a chest binder when immersing in the mikveh (a ritual bath that traditionally requires nudity). While there have been some previous efforts to apply halakha to specific questions of trans life, almost none of this work h...2023-09-1444 minOn the NoseChevruta: Be Fruitful and Multiply?Chevruta is a column named for the traditional method of Jewish study, in which a pair of students analyzes a religious text together. In each installment, Jewish Currents will match leftist thinkers and organizers with a rabbi or Torah scholar. The activists will bring an urgent question that arises in their own work; the Torah scholar will lead them in exploring their question through Jewish text. By routing contemporary political questions through traditional religious sources, we aim to address the most urgent ethical and spiritual problems confronting the left. Each column will be accompanied by a podcast and a...2023-07-2030 min
Judaism UnboundEpisode 273: Trans & Jewish World-Building - Becky Silverstein, Laynie SolomanBecky Silverstein and Laynie Soloman, co-founders of the Trans Halakha Project, join Dan and Lex to kick off a series of conversations that will intertwine explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation. Support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!To access shownotes for this episode, click here.The Trans Halakha Project, housed at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, aims to curate existing resources that have been developed for...2021-05-0754 min