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

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

person accepted to the

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

seminary

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

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 land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He received his master's degree in

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was pro ...

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 San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

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 Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. 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 individuals 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 bina ...

, and

genderqueer Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

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 s ...

in the Choir of Men and Boys at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. Zellman writes and teaches about transgender issues and Judaism. 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, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

since 1996. Zellman is intersex and identifies as neither male nor female. In 1999 he adopted he/his pronouns and a masculine gender expression, as he experienced harassment and felt it was "very dangerous" to have a non-binary 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 writers LGBT rabbis LGBT people from California American non-binary musicians American non-binary writers People from Los Angeles San Francisco State University alumni Transgender Jews American transgender musicians American transgender writers UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Intersex writers 21st-century American Jews Intersex musicians LGBT Reform Jews

Education

Career

Personal life

See also

References