In the months since President Donald J. Trump was elected, the transgender community has felt threatened and vulnerable. One of Trump’s first executive orders denied the existence and identity of trans and non-binary people, and his administration followed up with a cascade of restrictive laws and funding cuts affecting trans individuals in the United States. Trans Israelis have reported that Trump’s anti-trans rhetoric is affecting them as well.
For trans and non-binary teens and youth, the challenges are particularly daunting. This is why we’re proud that our grant recipient Moving Traditions is stepping up for Jewish LGBTQ+ youth and their parents.
- Moving Traditions recently launched Tzelem Online, a nationwide group for LGBTQ+ teens that meets monthly over Zoom. This online group supplements existing in-person Tzelem groups that are run by partners across the country. Learn more and sign up here.
- Together with Keshet, an organization (and past Hadassah Foundation grant recipient) advancing LGBTQ equality in Jewish life across North America, Moving Traditions recently hosted a webinar for parents and teens to learn how to support Jewish trans and queer youth in our current reality – socially, emotionally, and spiritually. You can request a recording of that webinar here.
- Moving Traditions is curating a variety of resources, including articles, information about other organizations serving and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community, and ways you can speak out here.
Moving Traditions’ resource page includes information about Thrive: The Jewish Coalition to Defend Trans and LGBQ+ Youth. With more than 300 members so far (including the Hadassah Foundation and several of our grantee organizations), the coalition is a project of Keshet and SOJOURN, which empowers communities to advance and celebrate gender and sexual diversity across the Southern United States. Organizations can join here.
The Hadassah Foundation was one of the first funders of Moving Traditions, which emboldens Jewish youth to thrive through the pursuit of personal wellbeing (shleimut), caring relationships (hesed), and a Jewish and feminist vision of equity and justice (tzedek). In 2023 it was awarded a Visionary Partner grant, which is an unrestricted five-year grant of $130,000 for Hadassah Foundation mission-aligned organizations with strong track records as previous grantees. Watch a video about the Hadassah Foundation and Moving Traditions below: