PRIDE Shabbat with Laynie Soloman, Director of National Learning & Talmud Faculty at SVARA at Germantown Jewish Centre

Join us for Pride Shabbat, where we will honor and celebrate the vibrant queer thread that runs through the amazing tapestry that is our community of communities. Following services, we invite you to continue the joyful feeling with an outdoor kiddush by Centre Catering with a centerpiece that celebrates our beautiful diversity. Germantown Jewish Centre welcomes Laynie Soloman, Director of National Learning & Talmud Faculty at SVARA!

11:30 AM Shabbat morning talk in the Charry Sanctuary: A Picture of Queer Rabbinic Revelation
“Turn it and turn it again, for everything is in it,” say the rabbis about the Torah, arguing that anything – past, present, or future can be rooted in and expressed through our tradition. We’ll explore this subversive framework of expansive revelation as it emerges in the weekly parasha, unpacking how it can speak to and through the Queer narrative that are emerging today.

Kiddush Learning following services – Trans Identity & Self-Determination in Halakhah: Creating New Legal Paradigms for Queer Liberation and Expression
What lies at the intersection of Jewish law and queer/trans experiences? What happens when we shift the conversation away from problems and issues, and turn our attention to the areas of expansion in Jewish law that queer realities create? Too often our conversations about queer realities and traditional norms are about solving perceived problems and figuring out how to make adjustments or concessions to a normative system. We’ll investigate one example that addresses questions of self-determination in medical transition through a creative application of traditional halakhic sources. People of all backgrounds are welcome (all sources will be provided in English with reference to the original language).

Laynie Soloman is the Director of National Learning and a faculty member at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. A passionate teacher of Jewish text, thought, and tradition, they believe deeply in the power of Talmud study as a healing and liberatory spiritual practice. They have spent several years learning and teaching in various batei midrash (homes for Jewish learning) including at Hadar, an egalitarian yeshiva in New York City, where they serve as an adjunct faculty member. Laynie is completing a Dual M.A. in Talmud/Rabbinic Literature & Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Goucher College. They love facilitating experiences of Jewish learning that uplift the piously irreverent, queer, and subversive spirit of rabbinic text and theology, and they have taught and lectured on these topics in various community spaces, campuses, and academic settings. When not in shul or learning Talmud, Laynie can be found reading about liberation theology, collecting comic books, and singing niggunim.