Elliot Kukla is the first openlytransgender person to be ordained by theReform Jewish seminaryHebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion inLos Angeles. Kukla is the founder and co-director of theCollective Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP), which honors the disenfranchised and suffocated grief of disabled people.[1] From 2008-2021, he was a rabbi at theBay Area Jewish Healing Center.[2][3] Prior to that role, he also served congregations in his hometown ofToronto,Ontario, Canada, as well asWest Hollywood, California andLubbock, Texas.[4]
Hecame out astransgender six months before his ordination in 2006.[4][5] Later, at the request of a friend who is also transgender, he wrote the firstblessing sanctifying the sex-change process to be included in the 2007 edition of theUnion for Reform Judaism's resource manual for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion calledKulanu.[6][7]
Kukla's writing has been featured in Time Magazine, Teen Vogue, British Vogue, Them, The LA Times, Truth Out and The New York Times, and has been translated into Spanish, Korean, French, and Japanese.[8] His first non-fiction bookThe Heart Lives By Breaking (Schocken, Fall 2027), and his first children's bookThe Lazy Day (Abrams, Spring 2027) are both forthcoming.
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