‘Appalled and disgusted’: Rabbi accused of transphobia over Eddie Izzard tweet

Numerous people reported Rabbi Zvi Solomons from Reading for offensive content on Twitter after he shared a picture of comedy star Eddie Izzard with lipstick and makeup, asking followers whether Izzard was a man or a woman.

“If you think this is a man, Retweet. If you think it’s a woman, like,” Solomons’ tweet read, receiving 625 likes and 3,475 retweets as of Wednesday night.

Twitter users in the comment section said they were “appalled” and “disgusted” by his tweet, while many said “it doesn’t matter” or that it’s “none of their business.”

Solomons told Jewish News he has no problem with how people identify themselves, but that allowing men to legally change gender “infringes on women’s rights.”

Men are more violent than women, Solomon said, and therefore there should be gender neutral spaces, such as toilets and dressing rooms so that women won’t feel threatened when they encounter “someone who’s obviously a male in their supposed safe space.”

“We have to treat transgender people with the utmost kindness and respect, and accommodate them legally, but they must not be allowed to displace women’s rights,” Solomons added.

One person in particular reacted strongly to Solomon’s tweet, which he vigorously defended throughout the comment section.

Luke Levine, a Jewish transgender man, called Solomons transphobic, saying “This is one of the first times in a long time that I’ve seen a public Jewish leader tweet something so abhorrently transphobic and incite violence towards us. As a Jewish TRANSGENDER man who works within the UK Jewish community, this is incredibly upsetting.”

“Seeing discrimination and transphobic violence from a leader within the Jewish community has really taken its toll on me today, I feel exhausted and very emotional. It has made me question my place within the community and wonder if there even is one based on the rabbi in question feeling so free to air horrific and damaging views with little to zero consequences,” Levine, who is employed by the Jewish youth movement BBYO UK & Ireland, continued.

Solomons replied to Levine, saying: “What is the abhorrent view you think I hold? Be specific, show your evidence.”

Levine would like to think he has “power to have me hounded and sacked because I ask a serious question,” Solomons fired back, calling males in women’s toilets a “dangerous ideology.”

The rabbi from Reading replied to others who were offended saying “Nobody can change sex,” and “He’s a bloke in women’s clothes who uses women’s single sex spaces. Don’t you think that’s problematic?”

In another tweet Solomons said “If rabbis don’t speak up for women and girls then who will? You don’t have to be female to realise that males using female only facilities, males in female sport, males in women’s changing rooms, males demanding female medicine is problematic. Not to mention the gaslighting.”

David Davidi-Brown, chief executive of the New Israel Fund UK, lashed out at Solomons, saying :“This is shameful and an abdication of their pastoral duty and moral leadership,” while calling on Chief Rabbi Mirvis to “demonstrate zero tolerance for this hateful prejudice.”

“People are angry because there is a lot of prejudice on both sides of this issue. I occupy a middle ground. There are two groups who need to be shown love and consideration here: women and transpeople,” Solomons told Jewish News.