How an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man became a transgender activist

NY Post ^ | 1/25/2014 | Gary Buiso

[NetAddicted]

To the world, he was Jeffrey Smith, an ultra-Orthodox Jew and spiritual leader teaching the Torah to hundreds of students in Jerusalem’s Hasidic community. But inside, Smith was keeping a secret. “Since I was 5 years old, I really thought I was a girl,” Smith, 63, told The Post in an interview last week from Israel, where she has been living for the past two years — as an Orthodox Jewish woman — following sex-reassignment surgery. As a boy growing up in Patchogue, LI, Smith knew early on that something was amiss. But there was no Internet to tell her what being transgender was all about. Whatever it was, Smith instinctively knew to keep quiet about it. “How does a 5-year-old in 1956 tell his mother he’s really a girl?” she said. At Patchogue HS on Long Island, Smith dated women, but relationships were short-lived. “I loved ­being with them, going to movies, but I always felt like I had to do more — and it didn’t feel right,” she said.

[informavoracious]

He felt like a girl when he was five. Maybe the mohel was overzealous at the bris?

[servantoftheservant]

I just LOL’d.

[Jewbacca]

Maybe. Outside of sporting-related activity (and then they wear leggings and a “skort”), Mrs. Jewbacca and my daughters always wear a dress or skirt.

Basic Frum dress 101.

I think the resurgence in male beards (which I welcome) is, in part, a rejection of the Soviet-like monotony of modern clothing.

Accordingly, waiting for beards to be called sexist by breathless feminists.

[Jewbacca]

Depends on the movie and the Rabbi, but I went on (chaperoned) dates with Mrs. Jewbacca, including some movies.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

Where did the term ‘beard’ even come from? I know what a beard is supposed to be but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve even heard it.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

LOL! I can see Obama doing that.

[Jewbacca]

Not sure I understood your post, or you were thinking my reference to “beard” was a reference to someone like Oprah’s fake boyfriend, Bill Clinton, or Huma Abedine’s fake husband.

I meant facial hair.

[NorthMountain]

Where did the term ‘beard’ even come from?

A literal beard (facial hair) is supposed to make men look more manly. Some effeminate faggots who wish to hide their sodomitic tendencies cultivate a reasonably attractive girlfriend (sometimes even marry her) as a way of appearing more manly, and hiding the fact that they're pickle-smooching fudgepackers ...

[Jewbacca]

I actually learned the word for people without a beard: women.

[NorthMountain]

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I thought you meant it in terms of a fake girlfriend. That’s a big DUH on my part. :-/

[MinuteGal]

I checked out Ellen Degenerate's wardrobe on her new television series on the House & Garden network. It's contrived, carefully-muted male. I call it "un-natural chic".

Three people in my whole adult life I can't stand to look at on TV....OJ Simpson, Obama and Ellen.

Leni

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

Have you seen OJ’s mugshot? It’s scary. There is no emotion in his eyes.

He is pure evil.

And you’re right about Ellen. She looks more and more masculine every day.

[Jewbacca]

They look a little green and pretty.

In seriousness, I understand the need to shave a beard in modern combat, due to chemical warfare and the necessity of masks --- I had to shave down to 3mm beard in the Israeli military because I was a pilot and needed to secure my mask, but going completely beardless is a form of cross-dressing in Judaism and specifically forbidden to shave (as opposed to cutting very closely). (This is the background of the on-going joke exchange you posted in the middle of.)

I read somewhere that Western Gentiles shaving was fairly new -- and, while not unknown -- Roman Centurions shaved, for example -- beards were more the norm than not. WWI and chemical warfare was really the impetus for kicking off the clean-shaven look in the West.

[NorthMountain]

due to chemical warfare and the necessity of masks

Occasionally, my job requires me to work in a certain location ... and then I have to shave. Gas mask: I may never need it, but if I do I'll need it right bloody now. I normally have about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of beard, probably "closely trimmed" by your standards.

Google up photographs of soldiers in the American "War Between the States". To my knowledge, that was the first war to be photographed; soldiers went from completely clean-shaven (perhaps 17yo kids) to some fairly spectacular beards. All the men in the picture you posted would fit right in either the Union or Confederate armies.