Becoming Eve cover art

Becoming Eve

My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman

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Becoming Eve

By: Abby Stein
Narrated by: Abby Stein
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About this listen

The powerful coming-of-age story of an ultra-Orthodox child who was born to become a rabbinic leader and instead became a woman

Abby Stein was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of 18th century Eastern Europe, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life. Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, 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. 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.

Powerful in the truths it reveals about biology, culture, faith, and identity, Becoming Eve poses the enduring question: How far will you go to become the person you were meant to be?

©2020 Abby Stein (P)2020 Seal Press
Biographies & Memoirs Gender Studies Judaism

Critic Reviews

"Becoming Eve is a powerful, moving story of grappling with both gender and faith. Abby Chava Stein is a compelling storyteller who shows us how to follow the voice within--even when everyone and everything around us is telling us not to." (Danya Ruttenberg, author of Surprised By God and Nurture the Wow)

"Becoming Eve is a beautiful, haunting story of self-discovery. Her longing for truth, acceptance, and love will echo in the heart of every reader." (Leah Vincent, author of Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood)

"'No agenda, just my story,' Abby Stein writes in the prologue to her fascinating memoir. And yet, her book delivers on a very definite agenda: helping us empathize with experiences radically different from our own. With humor and grace-and impressive erudition of Jewish mysticism-Abby Stein grants us entry into a singular, otherworldly capsule: the byzantine world of Hasidic 'royal' families and the Sisyphean pursuit of living an authentic life within it. (Shulem Deen, author of All Who Go Do Not Return, winner of the Prix Médicis and the National Jewish Book Award)

What listeners say about Becoming Eve

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Incredible story

Incredible story shared from her heart. For the first time I am starting to understand what it means to be transgender. Thank you Abby

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Narration tedious, story incredible

coming from a non-jewish background I found the storyline hard to follow with the complicated names but got the general gist to appreciate the story line(ish)

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