“I made Aliyah in June 2016. I came from New York city where I had graduated college. At age 26 I enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces.
I arrived to Israel as woman in every legal and physical sense of the word. I have been treated as a woman every step I have taken in Israel.
But I started taking female hormones as a 16 year old boy.
Two years before my Aliyah, I underwent Sex Reassignment Surgery
Earlier this year I was converted to Judaism by orthodox rabbis
I had grown up as a reform Jew with a catholic mother and a Jewish father
Over the past few years I have become what many would consider quite religious
And have found other women with my history who are equally spiritual
However few in number they may be
So here I am “A trans woman who made Aliyah and converted to Judaism.”
Aviya Eschnazi
