Harvard Conference Examines Jewish Law and Trans Identity. And the Human Soul.

It is, perhaps, rare for a Harvard constitutional law professor, a millennial social worker from New York City, and the leading living scholar of Kabbalah to be in dialogue with one another at an academic conference. It is even rarer for the common thread between presenters and practitioners alike at an academic legal conference to be the human soul. But at the Trans/Gender and Religious Law conference at Harvard Law School last week, this was exactly what occurred.

Hosted by the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School, the conference broadly approached the question of transgender identity in religious text and experience. The bulk of the textual explorations and community organizers were associated with Judaism, though the conference brought together presenters with specializations in Judaism, Islam, and performance art and gender identity. The conference was held just before Transgender Day of Visibility, which has been internationally recognized annually on March 31 since 2010.

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