Binya Kóatz: Judaism Unbound Episode 280 - Trans Diaspora, Baruch Hashem
Binya Kóatz, a "queer&trans, diasporic, arab-jewish, ashkenazi, god-loving, musical, femme, multilingual, ancestral-dreaming soul making joy and art and radical community," joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about transness, diaspora, Talmud, theology, and more, along how all of those topics flow into one another. This episode is the seventh episode in a series that intertwines explorations of Judaism, through lenses of transgender experience, and explorations of gender, through lenses of Jewish experience.
[1] Learn more about Binya Kóatz at binyakoatz.com.
[2] Check out some of her creative projects mentioned in this episode (including The Fast I Desire, Shel Maala: The First Digital-First Queer Yeshiva, and Hilchos Spookos: A Practical Guide to Observing Spookot/Jewish Halloween), by clicking here.
[3] Kóatz mentions a few activist organizations she is a part of — for past Judaism Unbound conversations with members of two of those organizations, see Episode 124: IfNotNow - Ilana Levinson, Jill Raney and/or Episode 230: Never Again Action - Tal Frieden, Becca Lubow.
[4] Learn more about Svara’s teaching Kolel, which Kóatz is part of, here.
[5] Check out Binya Kóatz’s Toldot Trans sourcesheet, in which she traces a trans lineage through the Torah, at this link.
[6] We mentioned in this episode that “Talmud for Boring B!tches,” a class offered by Binya Kóatz and Xava de Cordova, has already occurred. But there’s another class they are offering, called “Nightmare on Chelm Street,” which you can sign up for (and learn more about) here!
[7] Kóatz speaks a bit about anarchist theology. For a recent book on Jewish anarchism, featuring an essay by Kóatz, see There is Nothing so Whole as a Broken Heart, edited by Cindy Milstein.