Gather with extraordinary teacher, writer, scholar, and trans-activist, Nehirim Board member

Professor Joy Ladin, and talk about God and Queerness.

Many GLBT people have had painful, sometimes traumatic experiences with religion in general, and ideas about God in particular. In this workshop, we will focus not on how we have been excluded by religious communities and traditions, but on what LGBTQI people have to contribute, because rather than in spite of who we are, to the understanding of God, scripture, and what it means to be human. Joy will start by offering some examples from her own journey through Judaism as a closeted and then openly transgender person, but the focus will be on writing exercises and conversation that help us share the wisdom, however painful or ecstatic, each of has to offer.

About Joy Ladin: In 2008, Joy Ladin made headlines when she returned to her job at Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish institution, as a woman after years of teaching as a man. Ladin, who holds the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English, will publish an account of her transition, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, in the spring. A widely-published essayist and poet, Ladin is the author of five books of poetry, including Transmigration, a 2009 Lambda Literary Award finalist, and Coming to Life, winner of a Forward Fives award. A new collection, The Definition of Joy, is due out in the spring.