Elliot Kukla

Elliot Kukla is the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. Kukla is a rabbi at the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center.[1][2]

He came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006.[3][4] Later, at the request of a friend of his who was also transgender, he wrote the first blessing sanctifying the sex-change process to be included in the 2007 edition of the Union for Reform Judaism's resource manual for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion called Kulanu.[5][6]

Kukla has also written for Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish responsibility, Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Culture and Lilith, and other anthologies.[1]

Before moving to San Francisco, he served congregations in his hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as well as West Hollywood, California and Lubbock, Texas.[3]

  1. ^ a b "Our Rabbis". Jewishhealingcenter.org. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  2. ^ "Pathways Speakers Bios & Information: Rabbi Elliot Kukla". Institute on Aging. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Who We Are: Rabbi Elliot Kukla". TransTorah. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  4. ^ Spence, Rebecca (December 31, 2008). "Transgender Jews Now Out of Closet, Seeking Communal Recognition". The Jewish Daily Forward.
  5. ^ Joe Eskenazi & Ben Harris (August 17, 2007). "Blessed are the transgendered, say S.F. rabbi and the Reform movement". Jweekly.
  6. ^ Joshua Lesser, David Shneer and Judith Plaskow (2010). Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. New York: NYU Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8147-4109-2.