Jewish Involvement In Transgenderism

Transgenderism is an ideology tracing its roots to the early 20th century that claims the following:

• There is a concept of 'Men' and 'Women' that means something other than 'Male' and 'Female'
• Men can be born in female bodies, and women can be born in male
• This situation can be rectified or at least improved by taking hormones corresponding to the other sex and surgically altering the sex organs

Jews have been at the root of this ideology since its beginning, going back to Magnus Hirschfeld, its earliest practitioner.

Magnus Hirschfeld

The roots of transgenderism traces back to the early 20th century, when Jewish thinkers were among the first to challenge binary notions of gender. A notable pioneer was Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German-Jewish physician in Berlin. Hirschfeld devoted his career to studying sex and gender, believing in the natural diversity of sexual and gender identities, a view also present in the Talmud.{{Citation needed}} In 1910 he coined the term “Transvestit” from Latin Trans(different) and Vestire (clothing) as a label for people living as a gender other than their birth assignment. Hirschfeld argued that gender identity was distinct from sexual orientation – separating the concept of being transgender from homosexuality.

Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexual Science in 1919, which became the world’s first clinic and research center on sexuality and gender. There, Hirschfeld and his colleagues performed and developed the first sex change operations. To protect trans individuals in daily life, Hirschfeld worked with Berlin police to issue “Transvestitenschein,” or transvestite certificates – identification cards that spared holders from legal harassment for cross-dressing.

His books were publicly burned in 1933 by the Third Reich.

Harry Benjamin

After World War II, Jewish physicians and scientists played key roles in importing Transgenderism to the United States – which would soon become the hotbed of the movement. One such figure was Dr. Harry Benjamin, a German-born Jew who emigrated to America. Benjamin had met Magnus Hirschfeld in the 1920s and was influenced by Hirschfeld’s ideas. In the 1950s, Harry Benjamin gained renown for his work with transgender transsexuals. He provided medical treatment and understanding to people like Christine Jorgensen, the American ex-GI who became the first widely known transgender woman after undergoing hormone therapy and surgery in Europeglreview.orgglreview.org. When Jorgensen returned to the U.S. in 1953, it was Dr. Benjamin whom she sought for ongoing care, symbolically linking Hirschfeld’s European legacy to American practice.

Judith Butler

Judith Butler, a philosopher born into a Jewish family, published Gender Trouble in 1990 – a book that revolutionized gender theory by proposing that gender is performative (produced by repeated acts rather than fixed in nature). Butler has credited her background in studying Jewish ethics and philosophy as an influence on her reimagining of gender. The concept of questioning societal norms – a hallmark of Talmudic debate and Jewish intellectual tradition – informed Butler’s bold questioning of the “naturalness” of gender roles. Though Butler’s work is academic, it provided theoretical underpinning for much transgender activism, by undermining the idea of immutable gender and validating those who transgress gender norms. Likewise, earlier Jewish writers like Isaac Bashevis Singer explored gender-nonconformity in literature. Singer’s Yiddish short story “Yentl the Yeshiva Boy” (1962) portrayed a young woman who cross-dresses as a man to pursue Talmudic study. The tale was “far more provocatively transgendered” than its later film adaptationgendersexuality.northwestern.edu, essentially presenting a sympathetic transmasculine narrative decades before such stories were common. These cultural contributions by Jewish writers created early representation of gender variance and provided touchstones for later activists.

Kate Bornstein

Kate Bornstein – an American author and performance artist from a Conservative Jewish background – became an outspoken advocate for nonbinary and genderqueer identities. Bornstein, who transitioned in the 1980s, gained prominence with the 1994 book Gender Outlaw, which challenged the gender binary and invited readers to reimagine gender outside rigid categories. Notably, Bornstein was advocating for transgender and nonbinary acceptance “years before transgender rights and nonbinary identification became part of mainstream social discourse.” Bornstein often infuses a playful yet profound Jewish humor into discussions of gender. For example, on stage they might introduce themselves by saying, “Me, I’m a Jew from the Jersey Shore… and I’m what’s called nonbinary” – directly linking their Jewish identity and gender identity with a smile. Bornstein’s work, including the memoir A Queer and Pleasant Danger, opened up conversations about the fluidity of gender, making the subject more accessible. By the 1990s, both Bornstein and Feinberg had become prominent activists on the subject, helping trans issues gain visibility well before society at large caught upjta.org. The terminology and concepts these Jewish activists introduced – like “gender outlaw,” “transgender” as an inclusive term, or the idea that gender can be a spectrum – have fundamentally shaped the transgender acceptance movement.