Ariel Zitny is a rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, where he will be ordained in 2022. While living in Jerusalem, he was the first male intern to work with Women of the Wall, an activist group fighting for women’s right to pray at the Western Wall. Before coming to rabbinical school, he studied creative writing: First at the Orange County High School of the Arts, then at the University of British Columbia, where he double majored in Creative Writing and Psychology, and finally at Chapman University, where he received an MFA. He has had poems published in Wild Ones, Vermillion Literary Project, and TQ Review, and will have poems published in the upcoming anthology Queer Voices. He has written for Keshet and J-PRIDE, Jewish LGBTQ organizations, on being a transgender rabbinical student, and on the importance of transgender inclusion in Jewish spaces. He has given educational presentations about transgender identities and issues, and has participated in panels about transgender experiences. He lives in Los Angeles with his cat Lord Darlington.
