Abby Chava Stein

Abby Stein is an educator, speaker, and trans activist. She was raised male in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, New York, and her family is a direct descendent of Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. In her Hasidic community, she attended Yeshiva, completing a rabbinical degree in 2011. In 2012, she left the Hasidic world to explore different worldviews, and in 2015 she came out as a woman of trans experience. Since coming out, she's been working to raise awareness and support people...See more

Abby Stein is an educator, speaker, and trans activist. She was raised male in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, New York, and her family is a direct descendent of Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. In her Hasidic community, she attended Yeshiva, completing a rabbinical degree in 2011. In 2012, she left the Hasidic world to explore different worldviews, and in 2015 she came out as a woman of trans experience. Since coming out, she's been working to raise awareness and support people going through a similar experience. Her story has been covered by the New York Times , New York Post , New York magazine, Jewish Daily Forward , Daily Mail, NBC, and many other outlets, and she's appeared on media such as Fox News, CNN, HuffPost Live, and ShowTime. She's also the author of Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman . In 2016 Stein was named by the Jewish Week as one of the "36 Under 36" young Jews who are affecting change in the world. She is currently a student at Columbia University, studying women's and gender studies and political science. She lives in New York, NY. See less