The construction of gender in halakhic Responsa by the Reform movement: transgender people as a case study. Issue 2 (3rd April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Irshai, Ronit
• Is Part Of: Journal of modern Jewish studies. Volume 18:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 160
• Page End: 176
• Publication Date: 2019-04-03
• Subjects: Transgender -- trans and religion -- trans and Jewish law -- gender and religion -- Reform movement -- trans-feminist studies; Jews -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Judaism -- Periodicals; Jews -- Periodicals; 305.8924
• DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2019.1595496
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-5886

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article contributes to the expanding field of trans-Jewish-feminist studies in general, and to the scholarship about Jewish law in particular, by analyzing the ways in which the Reform movement has gradually legitimized transgender people and accepted them fully. Applying Judith Butler's ideas about the heterosexual matrix as an analytical tool, the article demonstrates how the Reform movement, in a slow and gradual process, has left the entire heterosexual matrix behind, although it can be claimed that the process (of leaving behind the heterosexual matrix) has not run all the way to a complete dissolution.