Abby Stein

Abby Chava Stein (born October 1, 1991) is an Israeli-American transgender author, rabbi, activist, blogger, model, and speaker. She is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov. In 2015, she founded one of the first support groups nationwide for trans people with an Orthodox Jewish background who have left Orthodox Judaism.

Stein is also the first woman, and the first openly transgender woman, to have been ordained by an Orthodox Jewish institution, having received her rabbinical degree in 2011, before coming out as transgender. Stein did not work as a rabbi immediately after leaving Orthodox Judaism, by 2019, she had been working as a rabbi again, and as of 2020 works in many capacities as a rabbi. In 2018, she co-founded Sacred Space, a multi-faith project "which celebrates women and non-binary people of all faith traditions".

For the Jewish year of 5785, beginning in September 2024, Stein will serve as part-time rabbi of Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive non-denominational synagogue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. Provided by Wikipedia