Joy Ladin  
Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders
in conversation with Susan Weidman Schneider, Lilith Magazine

with an introduction by Dr. Dana Beyer, Gender Rights Maryland

Sunday, October 14, 11:00 am
Tickets: $15, Discounted $12
Includes light brunch!

Buy the Book

Joy Ladin made headlines around the world when she returned to Yeshiva University to teach literature as a woman after having received tenure as a man.

With humor and unsparing honesty, Joy Ladin, the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution, takes readers inside her transition as she changed genders and, in the process, created a new self.

This poignant memoir brings us inside her struggles with God, the pain of her children in losing the father they love, and after forty years, learning to walk and talk as a woman. 

Don't miss a facinating and moving conversation with these insightful, wonderful speakers!

Joy Ladin is the David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English at Stern College of Yeshiva University, and is the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution. She is a Fulbright Scholar and author of seven books, including most recently, Psalms and Coming to Life, named “one of the five most important Jewish poetry books of 2010” by The Forward.

Susan Weidman Schneider is Editor-in-Chief and a founder of Lilith Magazine - "Independent, Jewish & Frankly Feminist." The magazine, and her writing and lectures, are often credited with changing the way Jewish women see themselves and their roles in the Jewish community. The author of three acclaimed books,her writing has been widely anthologized, and she lectures in North America, Europe and Israel on a range of feminist issues.

With an introduction by:
Dana Beyer, Executive Director of Gender Rights Maryland and a retired eye surgeon, is a well-known advocate for public health, good government, women’s rights, and LGBT civil rights. She was a candidate for Maryland State Delegate in District 18 in 2006 and 2010. She serves on the board of GLOE, the Kurlander Program for GLBT Outreach & Engagement; and Keshet, the national Jewish LGBT advocacy organization.

A light brunch will be served.

“Joy Ladin’s book succeeds so well because it is anything but a trans tract; it is a fierce story of regular old human life: hideous choices, endless repercussions, occasional glory, frequent humiliation, abiding difficulty. It could have happened to us. She makes us believe it.”—Kay Ryan, former poet laureate of the United States, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry 

“Not only a memoir of transgender experience, it’s also a story of family heartbreak and family love; of growth as a teacher and writer; and, not least, of a self deeply connected to God and Judaism throughout a life lived across genders.” —Rabbi Jill Hammer, author of The Jewish Book of Days, and Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion

Co-Sponsors: Lilith Magazine and Moment Magazine 

See the entire Festival line-up here!