UPDATED::I left Hasidism to become a woman | New York Post

UPDATED to add:: Leaving My Ultra-Orthodox Home and Finding My Trans Self: Part One and Leaving My Ultra-Orthodox Home and Finding My Trans Self: Part Two by Abby Stein.

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A man descended from a Hasidic “dynasty” is transitioning into a woman — enraging members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community she left behind.

Srully Stein — who now goes by Abby — recently came out as a woman and said she’s finally living as her true self — something she said was impossible to do growing up in her restrictive household in Brooklyn.

“In the community that I was raised in, Trans did not exist, neither was it ever discussed,” the 24-year-old writes in her blog.

“I was therefore convinced that I have to be crazy, and that I have to get this ‘stupidity’ of feeling like a girl, out of my head.”
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 “The road is long, but with the support of some amazing friends and professionals, for the first time in my life I feel like I am getting to be my real self,” she wrote in a recent post, which received more than 20,000 hits in just a couple days.

Stein’s roots trace back to Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, also referred to as Baal Shem Tov, considered the founder of Hasidic Judaism.

Her grandfather, Mordechai, was born in Fălticeni, Romania, and her father was born in Israel.

Her ancestors are part of several Hasidic sects — and her great-grandmother was a member of the Twersky family, a “very famous” old dynasty from the Ukraine, she said.

I left Hasidism to become a woman | New York Post