Letters to the Editor
Do you have something to say? We’d love to hear from you. Please send your (brief) letters to the editor to: editor@unorthoboxed.com.
Editor’s Note: During a very heated discussion on social media I invited people to write letters to the editor regarding the topic, but cautioned that only civil letters would be printed.
Dear Editor,
This is a civil response to that strange article by a man presenting as a woman, Shuli Elisheva.
As a Jewish woman and a mother and also a lesbian, I am disgusted that this magazine would platform surgical self-harm, male transgenderism with an attempt to normalize a dangerous fetish which is known to erode the safe spaces of women and girls. You have very little compassion for the women and girls who don’t believe that trans-identified males like Shuli belong in the category of females.
Instead of creating greater acceptance for women who are different, you are creating acceptance for heterosexual men with serious sexual problems. When will the penny drop that this kind of “diversity” benefits men?
Editor’s response:
When the decision was made to feature a transgender writer, it was done so with the purpose not to convince anyone to accept or reject transgenderism as a Jewish ideal. Rather it was to discuss a topic about which many Observant Jews do not understand, but which is also usually discussed in an environment which is uncomfortable or inappropriate for an Observant Jew to access. This creates a situation where we form opinions on a topic we know nothing about and interact with people we do not understand. Transgender people are not going away, they are our co-workers, our neighbors, and yes, our co-religionists, and so whether or not we come to the conclusion that what they’ve done is “right”, they are still people – b’tzelem Elokim, and we need to understand who they are and what life is like for them.
That being said, the reasons for a person to choose to change their physical body to a different gender are as varied as the reasons why a person would choose to convert to Judaism, or do anything else for that matter. To assume that all transgender people have the same psychological or physiological profile is not just narrow-minded, it’s ignorant.
An additional caution is warranted here – there are laws that protect a private citizen from being diagnosed by someone who is not their healthcare provider as well as from healthcare professionals making their medical or psychological details known to another person. There are also laws that protect a private citizen from being spoken about or written about in a negative manner which could bring them harm.
Dear Editor,
I just want to say Kol Havod! Penina, your message from the January issue was well written and to the point. Unorthoboxed is cutting edge and on-topic with the events we are living through in the world today.
Dear Editor,
Each month I look forward to your new edition. Thank you so much for creating a publication that is fresh, relevant and engaging. All the articles are well-written and the only thing I am disappointed about is that you are not yet in print. I anxiously await the day that you start producing a print version. Meanwhile I will continue to print off the PDF copies that you provide [Editor’s note: PDF copies of our articles are a benefit of being a paid subscriber] to read on Shabbat. Keep up the good work.