Reuben Zellman is an American teacher, author, rabbi, and musician. He became the first openly

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

person accepted to the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.

Education

Zellman received his B.A. in Linguistics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He received his master's degree in Hebrew literature from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. He was ordained as a rabbi by the seminary in 2010. He received a master's in choral conducting from San Francisco State University.

Career

From 2010 to 2018, Zellman served as the assistant rabbi and music director at Congregation Beth El in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. He is a lecturer in the music department of San Francisco State University, where he directs the Treble Singers, formerly known as the Women's Chorus. Zellman also directs the New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus, a chorus for transgender,

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

, and genderqueer singers, at the Community Music Center in San Francisco. He sings as a

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a ...

in the Choir of Men and Boys at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. Zellman is on the staff of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, an LGBTQ+ synagogue. Zellman writes and teaches about transgender issues and Judaism. With Elliot Kukla, Joy Ladin, Max Strassfeld, and Jhos Singer, he founded TransTorah.org to help “people of all genders to fully access and transform Jewish tradition, and helps Jewish communities to be welcoming sanctuaries for people of all genders.” He has been involved with transgender activism since 1999, the year he transitioned.

Personal life

Zellman was born and raised in California, and has lived mostly in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

since 1996. Zellman is intersex and identifies as neither male nor female. In 1999 he adopted he/his pronouns and a masculine

gender expression Gender expression (or gender presentation) is a person's behavior, mannerisms, interests, and appearance that are associated with gender in a particular cultural context, typically understood in terms of masculinity and femininity. Gender expr ...

, as he experienced harassment and felt it was "very dangerous" to have a

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

presentation at that time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zellman, Reuben 1970s births Living people American Reform rabbis Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion alumni Intersex non-binary people Transgender non-binary people Jewish American non-fiction writers LGBTQ rabbis LGBTQ people from California American non-binary musicians American non-binary writers Rabbis from Los Angeles Musicians from Los Angeles San Francisco State University alumni Transgender Jews American transgender musicians American transgender writers UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni American intersex writers Intersex musicians LGBTQ Reform Jews 21st-century American rabbis Year of birth missing (living people)

Education

Career

Personal life

See also

References