Becoming Eve

Abby Stein was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life. Born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, Abby was poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. 

Without access to TV or the Internet, and never taught to speak English, she suppressed her desire for a new body while looking for answers wherever she could find them, from forbidden religious texts to smuggled secular examinations of faith. Finally, she orchestrated a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity—a radical choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, her way of life.

Join Randi Reed, education specialist at Keshet, for a conversation with Abby as she shares her journey and paints a portrait of a life that every human being can relate to— the vulnerability and the glory, the frustrations and the revelations, the shedding of one identity and growing into another.

Copies of Abby Chava Stein’s book, Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman, will be available for sale at this event. 

CIIS students, staff, and faculty receive discounts on all events. CIIS Public Programs Members receive a 20% discount on all events. Contact us for more information at publicprograms@ciis.edu. Please note that we will check your ID for proof of eligibility on arrival at event.

Abby Chava Stein is the tenth-generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement. In 2015, she came out as a woman, and she now works as a trans activist. In 2019, Abby served on the steering committee for the Women's March in Washington, DC, and she was named by the Jewish Week as one of the “36 Under 36” Jews who are affecting change in the world. She lives in New York City.

Randi Reed (she/her/hers) combines her love of art, theater, and summer camp work experience with her passion for creating safer, more inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community as an education and training specialist for Keshet.

Prior to joining Keshet, Randi helped build LGBTQ teen and community programs for the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. She also managed volunteers, community programs, and donations for Covenant House California, the largest youth shelter in Northern California.

When she’s not in the office, Randi can be seen cruising on one of her bikes around San Francisco and Oakland or rowing in the San Francisco Bay with her Whale Boat Team, West Coast Rowing.