Abby Chava Stein - Becoming Eve

2019, Abby Chava Stein, English,

Full title: "Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman" by Abby Chava Stein.

"Abby Stein was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life.

Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. She suppressed her desire for a new body while looking for answers wherever she could find them, from forbidden religious texts to smuggled secular examinations of faith. Finally, she orchestrated a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity-a radical choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, her way of life."

Abby Chava Stein was born on October 1, 1991, in New York City, USA. She hails from a family of notable Hasidic leaders and grew up in the Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her father, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Stein, is the current Savraner Rebbe of Brooklyn. Abby’s grandfather, Grand Rabbi Mordechai Stein, is the current Faltishaner Rabbe and a descendant of Reb Mordechai Twersky of Chernobyl. Her family has roots in Poland, Ukraine/Romania, Serbia, and Israel. She was educated in a traditional all-boys Jewish day school, where Yiddish and Hebrew were spoken. The community she grew up in is highly segregated by gender in almost all aspects of daily life.

Abby is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community. She is a direct descendant of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov. In 2015, Abby founded one of the first support groups for trans individuals with an Orthodox Jewish background who have left Orthodox Judaism. She is also the first woman and the first openly transgender woman to have been ordained by an Orthodox Jewish institution. She received her rabbinical degree in 2011, even before coming out as transgender. Although she didn’t work as a rabbi after leaving Orthodox Judaism until at least 2016, by 2020, she had re-embraced her title as a rabbi and currently serves in various capacities. Abby co-founded Sacred Space, a multi-faith project celebrating women and non-binary people of all faith traditions.

Abby is an author and has written a memoir titled “Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman.” Her writing explores themes related to LGBT literature, Jewish literature, and her personal journey. She has modeled, spoken at events, and actively engages in transgender activism. Abby made history by becoming the first openly transgender woman to be featured in Vogue magazine, a globally influential fashion and lifestyle publication.

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