Dialogue - Jennifer Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser: How We Talk About Gender – June 7, 2021

How We Talk About Gender

In honor of Pride Month, the How We Talk About team discusses gender – how we can affirm the presence of a truly diverse and inclusive Jewish community by sharing pronouns, offering alternatives to gendered and binary Jewish rituals (such as bar/bat mitzvah), and thinking about alternative ways to form groups or teams instead of boys vs. girls. What is the important conversation that we need to have about gender in the Jewish community? Jen Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser are joined by Dubbs Weinblatt, the Associate Director of Education and Training for Metro New York at Keshet and the Founder and Executive Producer of Thank You For Coming Out, a podcast and live improv show celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. Weinblatt is currently undergoing a physical transition to better affirm their gender identity and embarking upon a journey to their adult B-mitzvah, a gender-neutral approach to the traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. Listen for advice and guidance about how to have these important conversations about gender.

Discussion and Reflection Questions

• What are ways you have made your classroom inclusive regarding gender? What is the next step to make your learning environment more inclusive?
• Is there a time when you used gendered language when, in hindsight, you could have used different language?
• Question from Dubbs Weinblatt: Think of a time when you were able to bring your full self into a space – fully celebrated and fully affirmed. What did that feel like? How did you know that you were fully affirmed? How did that moment of authenticity affect your relationship with the community you were in? And how can you take that feeling and bring it back to your classroom/learning space/community to help create the same space for others to belong?