“The Reason I am Able to be a Pioneer”: Cantor Ze’evi Tovlev on Work in Nonbinary Liturgy at Hebrew Union College

"I grew up in the Reform Movement; I like to say that I was raised 'observantly Reform,'" says Cantor Ze'evi Tovlev, MAJE '21, MSM '22, Cantorial Ordination '23. But it was not immediately apparent that they would someday lead congregants in sacred song, as they now do as Cantor at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, Maryland. "I was a very shy, quiet, small child," Tovlev recalls.

Tovlev's presence began to grow through a connection with Jewish music at the URJ Eisner Camp in Massachusetts, where Tovlev was a songleader as a teenager, and at Temple Shalom of Newton, Massachusetts, where they discovered a love of tefilah and choral singing. These early experiences would go on to shape Tovlev's overall approach to Jewish practice.

"I never really loved the idea that you sit in services and watch services being performed," Tovlev says. "I loved singing and getting to hear everybody around me also participating. There is something visceral, and there's something sensory about being in community and not only sitting next to people, but also hearing your voice alongside the other people, and getting to harmonize. It's kind of the 'surround-sound' spirituality experience."

That love of singing in groups led Tovlev to earn a degree in vocal performance and music composition at Bennington College. But there was also another parallel path that would feed into their eventual cantorate: Jewish education. Tovlev earned a Master of Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College's School of Education in Los Angeles in 2021 and worked in several synagogues, gaining experience in other key areas of clergy work.

"I really loved engaging in pastoral care, leading services, teaching, engaging in social justice-all the things that make up a cantorate-and that's why I chose to go to cantorial school."

After enrolling at Hebrew Union College's Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, Tovlev came out as transgender and nonbinary as a second-year student, becoming the first nonbinary cantorial student stateside-"a huge honor and a huge responsibility." Although they were embraced with "an overwhelming amount of good intention," Tovlev says that the campus community did not yet have a great deal of information about trans and nonbinary students. "Many of the people I spoke to had never met someone who used they/them pronouns before, or at least hadn't been in community with them in the past. What I tried to do was build institutional knowledge. I wanted to make sure the good intentions of the faculty, administration, staff, and the student body were able to translate into this becoming a safe space."

As a cantorial student, Tovlev became interested in the emerging field of nonbinary liturgy and in creating new liturgical adaptations. At that time, "there wasn't anybody at Hebrew Union College who was an expert" in the subject. But there was a resource Tovlev turned to: the system developed in the early 2010s by the Nonbinary Hebrew Project, an initiative at the University of Colorado Boulder. "It is the most comprehensive system of nonbinary Hebrew grammar, so it was right for this project. I went way down the grammar rabbit holes," Tovlev remembers.

The result was a senior thesis on nonbinary liturgy, along with a senior recital adapting the prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat. "It was very radical," Tovlev says. "Standing up in front of the Hebrew Union College community, I felt comfortable enough that I wasn't only able to say, 'Here are the liturgical adaptations that I've made,' but I was also able to say, 'Here is who I am, and this is why it's important to me.' I was able to share my own personal journey through nonbinary liturgy, and that was met with so much compassion and support."

Tovlev says nonbinary Hebrew "can be destabilizing for some people, especially those who have learned liturgical Hebrew and prayer language by rote." Still, when they were hired at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, Maryland, the leadership welcomed the new approach "with open arms, and the nonbinary Hebrew was received enthusiastically by congregants as well."

Outside the congregation, Tovlev says, "the main pushback I've gotten is: 'You're changing syllables that people have been saying for decades and decades-who are you to do that?' And what I come back to is the why. It's because we are there to create a space for people in Judaism who have not had space carved out for them before. Perhaps it has existed in English in the translation, but it hasn't existed in the Hebrew. If you're blessing a whole group of people using the Priestly Benediction only in the masculine, and it's not a group of only masculine people, we can do better."

"I generally say to people, 'We've changed it in English. It's time to change it in Hebrew,'" Tovlev continues. "We need to be brave enough to take those steps and say: You belong in our community. Judaism is for you. You also deserve this blessing, so we're going to change it so that it reflects who you are.'"

Tovlev says their experience both as a camp songleader and at the School of Education has been invaluable in helping guide congregants through these changes in language. "Being an educator and loving education writ large, in and out of the classroom, is very much a part of how I lead services. I really value participatory prayer, and I see my role as less of a performer and more of a facilitator."

Tovlev has also sought to support other Jewish communities seeking to bring nonbinary Hebrew into their services. They've made their compositions, writings, and other information available on a website run jointly with their spouse Rabbi Ariel Tovlev MAJE '21, Rabbinical Ordination '23. Cantor Tovlev says their teachings on nonbinary Hebrew for groups of rabbis and cantors and their compositions that use nonbinary Hebrew liturgy have been received "with so much love and curiosity. There are so many cantors and rabbis and music leaders and service leaders around the country who have said, 'I really want to make a place for trans and nonbinary people in my community, and I want to make it clear to people from the bimah that you belong here in this community.' And it seems like the music I have written is a way for people to show that."

Today, the number of trans students training for clergy roles in the Reform Movement has grown exponentially since Tovlev attended the School of Education and the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. "I think that goes a long way toward shifting institutional culture and making sure the intentions translate to impact."

Cantor Jill Abramson '02, Director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, said, "A skilled grammarian, a talented composer, and a passionate teacher, Cantor Tovlev's groundbreaking work has expanded the language of Jewish liturgical expression, opening new pathways of belonging for our students and the communities they serve."

Looking back, Tovlev concludes that "The reason why I am able to be a pioneer in nonbinary liturgy is because of the work that I did as a student at Hebrew Union College."