Transgender Professor Turns Heads At Yeshiva University

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 6:05pm

After a two year absence, 47-year-old Yeshiva University literature professor Jay Ladin returned to school last week as Joy Ladin, putting the oy in Joy by arriving at the midtown campus wearing a black skirt and pink lipstick. According to the head of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Ladin is the only transgender employee of a religiously conservative university in America.

Unsurprisingly, some feathers have been ruffled. Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a senior dean at Yeshiva's rabbinical school, tells the Post (in an article headlined 'YE-SHE-VA') that Ladin's 'not a woman. He's a male with enlarged breasts. He's a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual. There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics and Torah morality.'

In 2006, less than two weeks after the university gave Ladin tenure, she revealed to the administration that she was transgender and in the process of becoming a woman. Ladin was promptly placed on indefinite leave, but after a lot of drama she was allowed to return this fall. One faculty member tells the Post that the university decided to keep Ladin on staff only to avoid a lawsuit. During the hiatus, Ladin, who reportedly still 'retains the most prominent part of her manhood,' kept busy writing her memoir, entitled "Inside Out: Confessions of a Woman Caught in the Act of Becoming."
YE-SHE-VA: UNIVERSITY IS RATTLED BY TRANSGENDER PROF

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 6:17pm

Wow. I hope she wins people over. She's obviously a good professor.

Sidenote: one thing I love about my neighborhood is all the stunningly gorgeous Jewish guys who attend Yeshiva. Oy vey!

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 6:22pm

Does Yeshiva receive any public funding or are they a 100% private institution?

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 6:29pm

Most of my friends that go there (and I have quite a few) don't really give a crap either way. The school already has some sort of Gay and Lesbian student club.

Jerby: You live in the heights?

Akiva

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 6:32pm

Yes. And it's just like the musical.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 6:38pm

Hah I live there when I am in the city...and the musical totally ignores the Jews in the 'hood...which sucks! Hah...I could totally be play the token jew in that show.

Akiva

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 7:18pm

It's also becoming the new gayborhood. It's a neighborhood facing steady gentrification. I just hope the hood doesn't lose its sense of culture and community. I do hope the litterbugs move.

[fflagg]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 9:58pm

super freak

[Jon]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 10:05pm

Transgender professor = Mental Yentl?

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 10:07pm

First of all SHE ROCKS!

As far as I know that school sits with a "tax exempt" status. So even if they don't receive public funding they do benefit from the state and local government.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 10:20pm

There is nothing "mental" about being transgendered. I know it was a joke but...

"Super freak"---who was that regarding?

[LadyRosecoe]

Posted: 9/8/08 at 11:00pm

Torah, Torah, Torah!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 9/9/08 at 9:36am

For those who are interested in expressing their support, I have Ms. Ladin's e-mail address.

If anyone would like to send her an e-mail, please PM me and I'll send her e-mail address to you. I do not want to post it on a public forum.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/9/08 at 11:11am

The "mental" had to do with her being really smart - like a college professor would have to be.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/9/08 at 12:11pm

Awesome. I absolutely apologize. I think flagg's likely bigoted comment set me off.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 9/9/08 at 4:59pm

Yeah, what's up with fflag's post? Rude much?