Live from Oklahoma: Rabbi Moskowitz on Nex Benedict's Death

Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, Scholar-in-Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at CBST: 

“I came in for the vigil last night for Nex Benedict, the young, nonbinary student who died after being bullied.

“There’s a 16-year-old child who’s not going to turn 17, in a state that doesn’t see their life as being worthy, as being as human as everybody else’s life.

“I came representing CBST. And people kept on saying, you know, ‘Thank you for being here.’ And I kept on responding to the genderqueer and the trans kids who were there by saying ‘Thank you for being.’

“Only in a place where people don’t see the godliness and the humanity in humans can you legislate this way, can you speak about God’s children in such a way.

“And so a kiddush Hashem—the sanctification of God’s name—is really acknowledging the sanctification of the Divine and each human being. This person is holy, and they’re a holy person because they’re a person.”

Empty seats representing the trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender expansive people taken from our lives too soon, at the vigil for Nex Benedict in Tulsa, Okla., on Feb. 25, 2024.

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