Rabbi Diana's Weekly Message

Dear Hevre,

It alarms, saddens and angers me that on April 1 Tennessee will enact its anti-drag bill. This will jeopardize the livelihood of many and unnecessarily cause innocent people either to hide or to risk getting misdemeanors, jail time, fines and felonies. And of course the risk that this will impact public gender expression is real, as we know how many laws there are targeting the trans community right now all over the country.

Jen Abrams, a Brooklyn-based performance artist and creator of a resource-sharing network for artists considers this trend within a Jewish context [especially appropriate as we recently celebrated Purim]. She writes -inspired by director, designer and puppeteer Jenny Romaine- that “Drag is a religious freedom issue. Costume is central to Purim and there’s a very old tradition of men dressing up as women, and women dressing up as men. Purim is about the holiness of confusion, about the transformative power of the upside-down…Purim tells us it is sacred to turn our assumptions on their heads. It offers us disorientation as a portal to new understanding."

Additionally, the Talmud describes no less than six different genders. https://www.keshetonline.org/resources/gender-diversity-in-jewish-sacred-texts/

As a New Hope-based shul, where we are from our inception LGBTQ members and strong allies, where many of us run into each other at the High Heel Drag Race, we understand that rights are being challenged.

Please familiarize yourselves with Keshet: https://www.keshetonline.org

This is how Keshet describes itself:

Keshet works for the full equality of all LGBTQ Jews and our families in Jewish life. We strengthen Jewish communities. We equip Jewish organizations with the skills and knowledge to build LGBTQ-affirming communities, create spaces in which all queer Jewish youth feel seen and valued, and advance LGBTQ rights nationwide. 

There are incredible resources on Keshet’s website for Torah learning as well as for advocacy. I encourage you to explore the work they do and if you are able, to contribute to this group and/or find other was to counter the attacks on the LGBTQ and drag communities.

Wishing you a joyous and peaceful Shabbat.

Josh will be leading in person at 7:00 pm or you can join on Zoom at:

Gut Shabbos,

Rabbi Diana

[please reply to this by emailing me at: rabbidianamiller@gmail.com]