Keshet's mission is to ensure that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews are fully welcomed and included in all parts of the Jewish community. With help from a grant from the BYFI Alumni Venture Fund, Keshet has offered trainings, workshops, consultations, and educational resources to Jewish educators and communal professionals about the experiences and needs of transgender Jews. Keshet's focus on trans inclusion affirms for educators, rabbis, parents, and youth that Judaism has a place for gender variant youth and adults, and that organizations and congregations can create a caring Jewish community for all.
Keshet has mobilized the Massachusetts Jewish community to address discrimination against transgender people in employment, housing, access to credit, and public accommodations. Such discrimination is not illegal in the majority of states and is a national epidemic that leads to rampant financial insecurity, health disparities, and homelessness among transgender individuals.
As a founding organization of the Interfaith Coalition for Trans Equality (ICTE), we have spent two years recruiting Jewish leaders to become supporters of a bill pending in the Massachusetts legislature to outlaw discrimination and hate violence against transgender people. More than 80 Jewish clergy and institutions and more than 50 lay leaders have signed on to a formal declaration of support. In addition, 16 Jewish community leaders wrote testimony in support of the bill for its Judiciary Committee hearing last summer.
In 2009, we planned "An Act of Faith," an interfaith forum at Hebrew College in Newton, MA that brought people of faith and legislators together to listen to and learn from transgender individuals who have had no legal recourse following the unjust discrimination they faced. "As far as any of us can gather, this is the first time in Massachusetts history that a group of people of faith have come together specifically around transgender issues," said Rabbi Daniel Judson of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School. "So this is that moment...when things change." The event was later replicated in Western Massachusetts.
How to get involved:
To contribute your skills or to learn more about resources or educational trainings for your community on transgender issues, email Andrea Jacobs, Keshet Director of Education, at andrea@keshetonline.org or call 617.524.9227. BYFI alumna Idit Klein (‘89) is Keshet's Executive Director. Visit www.keshetonline.org/resources/.
