We are so excited to share this podcast mashup with you! Elana, Jessie, and Jesi of Making Mensches in conversation with the incredible Lexi Kohanski of Torah for Trans Lives (T4Torah). In addition to her podcast, Lexi is also the Director of Online Learning at the Torah Studio and is currently designing Worlds To Come, a first-of-its-kind tabletop roleplaying game to teach Biblical Hebrew. Obviously Lexi is brilliant beyond belief and it was a true joy to get to co-create with her.

In this episode, we explore the ways people engage with Torah both for life and for death, what it means to find ourselves in the texts as queer and trans people, how to begin your Torah exploration if it feels daunting, and so much more. 

Zionists love to suggest that anti-zionist Jews don’t know Torah and weaponize the text, but truly - the Torah is ours. We must continue to make it so.

Some links…

• You can find Torah Studio classes here
• Although Lexi’s class with Shel Maala has since happened you can find more Shel Maala classes here and listen to our podcast episode with the founders here or wherever you listen to podcasts
• More about the Jewish Liberation Theology Institute can be found here

[This episode was recorded in February 2026.]

Big thanks to Lexi for this collaboration, Jesi for being part of the interview process, Jessie for editing the podcast, and to Nate for our podcast music. If you want to support our work, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠you can do so here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠