Rabbi Jhos Singer

Rabbi Maggid Jhos Singer hails from Venice Beach, Califonia, where he grew up amongst both the beauty and brutality of the world. He saw this reality reflected in the Torah, whose heroes and villains are bound up in single characters. Moses, the murderer prophet, Sarah the conniving matriarch, David the philandering source of renewal and redemption. His lived tales of perfect imperfection dovetailed with the Torah’s teachings, and led him to seek wisdom and find purpose as a Jewish spiritual teacher, learner, and leader. He studied with many teachers including R. Gershon Winkler, R. Yoel Kahn, R. Jonathan Ome Man z”l, Naomi Seidman, Deena Aranoff, Nan Gefen, R. Jane Litman, R. Avram Davis, Rachel Brodie z”l, R. Margaret Holub, R. Dev Noily, and R. Benay Lappe. He was ordained as a Maggid (R. Gershon Winkler) and received Rabbinic smicha in 2024 from R. Benay Lappe. Together with his wife, Julie Batz, he served as a congregational leader for the Coastside Jewish Community in Half Moon Bay (2000-2014), Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley (2014-2022) and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (2012-2024). Additionally he has been a learner and teacher with SVARA, and received his M.A. degree in Jewish Studies from the Graduate Theological Union (2012).

Rabbi Singer is an openly transgender man, and finds that Judaism mirrors queerness. Especially the Talmudic rabbis whose queerheadedness undergirds their total restructuring of Judaism from a temple based cult into ever evolving philosophic and spiritual practices . For Singer, Judaism and Jewish religiosity comes from the dual identities of persecution, otherness, and outsiderhood that affect both Jewish and queer people. Charm, wit, intellect, and flexibility act as tools for rooting cultural cache and social power for both Jews and LGBT folks. Singer feels a kinship with the way biblical Jews and the Talmudic era rabbis had to adapt, act, and even pretend in order to survive. Both groups recognize that masking one’s truth is a last resort survival technique, but to deny one’s truth, to reject God’s gift of our own unique identity, is a form of blasphemy. Naturally, as Queer Jews started to form their own communities, Singer found a home to worship, learn, and lead in those spaces.

He first stepped into Queer Jewish communal life in his early twenties at the first Lesbian and Gay synagogue in America, Beth Chayim Chadishim synagogue in Los Angeles. Being a part of this community was affirming and exciting; it sparked his desire to pursue a path of Jewish learning and involvement. By the time he left Los Angeles for the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984 he joined Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco, a queer synagogue which had been founded in 1977. Sha’ar Zahav was committed to fostering robust lay leadership which afforded him with an opportunity to develop his Jewish leadership skills. Singer was a part of the Sha’ar Zahav community in the midst of the AIDS crisis, where week after week the community grappled with losses. Under the guidance of R. Yoel Kahn, a Queer, Jewish container was created where grief, anger, anxiety, and exhaustion could be experienced in sacred community. R. Kahn and the lay leadership surfaced Jewish tools for resilience and faith, even in the face of huge suffering and deep bonds were created between congregants. It was a living example of how queer and Jewish culture share longstanding reliance on courage, innovation, pride, persistence, and love to survive.

He has brought this experience with him through all of his work in the mainstream Jewish community. And feels profoundly grateful to all those who came before him, with special gratitude to R. Lisa Edwards, R. Yoel Kahn, and R. Benay Lappe for their example of rabbinic courage, brilliance, and generosity.

(This biographical statement written by Malena Glover from an interview with Jhos Singer and was edited by Singer.)

Biography Date: August 2026

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