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Reviews
Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community by Noach Dzmura, Tucker Lieberman
zhelana's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
This book had three big sections, and two of them were good. It talked about Jewish community, Jewish rites, and Jewish beliefs as regards transgender people. It was written some autobiographical by trans Jews and some by rabbis looking through the Torah for clues as to what we should think about Trans people. Although it acknowledges at one point that the Orthodox are not in favor of trans rights, the book is very trans positive and talks about how we have the opportunity to expand our beliefs in order to include more people. One of the most memorable essays discusses whether men can wash a trans-masculine body for a funeral, but it doesn't come to a conclusion. Anyway, the sections on community and rituals were good but the section on Torah was less good, probably because there isn't much positive in there about what is a very modern issue. Overall I'd probably give this 3.5 stars, because although it started out strong, it went on far too long and eventually got repetitive.
talireadsbooks's review
4.0
Interesting short stories about transgender identities in Jewish communities. Some jargon which made me disengaged but all around interesting read
jugglingpup's review
3.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I had one major issue with this entire book, that is the issue of conflating the issues of intersex people and transgender people. The editor of the book does not define what transgender is, but instead uses a few different labels that are not commonly associated with transgender people such as bear (a big hairy gay man). Bears may be transgender, but saying that all bears are or using it as a transgender label is not correct. Also the issue of saying that all intersex people are transgender because of their birth sex. WRONG! There are many groups of intersex people that hate transsexuals and vilify them (not all intersex people vilify transgender or transsexual people, but enough do to create these groups).
Once I was able to get beyond the intersex issue (though almost every author in the last section confuses the two), the book was an interesting look into a religion I knew very little about. The authors help the reader understand what they are talking about by explaining the different practices and the editor does a great job of introducing the pieces in a way that gives them context to people who aren’t Jewish. Overall the book was fascinating, though some pieces were really dry or uninteresting.
I had one particular author I had a problem with (outside of the editor who I had a problem with throughout the book). This author said that sex and gender were the same thing (actually they said that there is no distinction between the two) thus invalidating many identities. I appreciated their arguments, but I could not stand behind someone that does not see sex (biological indicators of maleness or femaleness) and gender (psychological, expression, identity) as different. The group of people the author was discussing were people who did not have a sex and gender that aligned, but they refused to acknowledge that this was an issue (then why would transpeople have any issues if sex and gender were the same thing?). Sort of a sore spot of mine, if you couldn’t tell.
The last bit I will talk about is the way that the authors were able to blend their lives and their views of a very binary gender religion and their own identities was fascinating and I really did appreciate the views of all of the authors (even the ones I did not support or found dry). This book took me days to read as it was not a simple read, but it was one that I am glad I managed to get through.
I had one major issue with this entire book, that is the issue of conflating the issues of intersex people and transgender people. The editor of the book does not define what transgender is, but instead uses a few different labels that are not commonly associated with transgender people such as bear (a big hairy gay man). Bears may be transgender, but saying that all bears are or using it as a transgender label is not correct. Also the issue of saying that all intersex people are transgender because of their birth sex. WRONG! There are many groups of intersex people that hate transsexuals and vilify them (not all intersex people vilify transgender or transsexual people, but enough do to create these groups).
Once I was able to get beyond the intersex issue (though almost every author in the last section confuses the two), the book was an interesting look into a religion I knew very little about. The authors help the reader understand what they are talking about by explaining the different practices and the editor does a great job of introducing the pieces in a way that gives them context to people who aren’t Jewish. Overall the book was fascinating, though some pieces were really dry or uninteresting.
I had one particular author I had a problem with (outside of the editor who I had a problem with throughout the book). This author said that sex and gender were the same thing (actually they said that there is no distinction between the two) thus invalidating many identities. I appreciated their arguments, but I could not stand behind someone that does not see sex (biological indicators of maleness or femaleness) and gender (psychological, expression, identity) as different. The group of people the author was discussing were people who did not have a sex and gender that aligned, but they refused to acknowledge that this was an issue (then why would transpeople have any issues if sex and gender were the same thing?). Sort of a sore spot of mine, if you couldn’t tell.
The last bit I will talk about is the way that the authors were able to blend their lives and their views of a very binary gender religion and their own identities was fascinating and I really did appreciate the views of all of the authors (even the ones I did not support or found dry). This book took me days to read as it was not a simple read, but it was one that I am glad I managed to get through.
queerloras's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Transphobia, Abortion, Biphobia, Antisemitism, Bullying, Child death, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Slavery, Abandonment, Ableism, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, Dementia, and Infertility
caidyn's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A diverse read on trans Jews and how being trans isn't against the religion. In fact, it's woven into it in many ways. It includes essays from transfolk who are binary and nonbinary trans.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
mirichasha's review
5.0
Super interesting and made me think a lot about how gender functions in my own life and community. I'd love to see an updated collection of essays, it's remarkable how much language especially has changed since this was published!
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