Elliot Kukla

Elliot Kukla is the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. Kukla is a rabbi at the [http://www.jewishhealingcenter.org Bay Area Jewish Healing Center.]{{cite web |url=http://education.ioaging.org/pathways/pathways_bios.html |title=Pathways Speakers Bios & Information: Rabbi Elliot Kukla |publisher=Institute on Aging |accessdate=March 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126165043/http://education.ioaging.org/pathways/pathways_bios.html |archivedate=November 26, 2010 }}

He came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006.{{cite web|url=http://www.transtorah.org/whoweare.html |title=Who We Are: Rabbi Elliot Kukla |publisher=TransTorah |accessdate=March 25, 2013}}{{cite news|url=http://forward.com/articles/14854/transgender-jews-now-out-of-closet-seeking-commun-/ |last=Spence |first=Rebecca |title=Transgender Jews Now Out of Closet, Seeking Communal Recognition |date=December 31, 2008 |newspaper=The Jewish Daily Forward}} Later, at the request of a friend of his who was also transgender, he wrote the first blessing sanctifying the sex-change process to be included in the 2007 edition of the Union for Reform Judaism's resource manual for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion called Kulanu.{{cite journal|url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/33139/blessed-are-the-transgendered-say-s-f-rabbi-and-the-reform-movement/ |title=Blessed are the transgendered, say S.F. rabbi and the Reform movement |journal=Jweekly |author=Joe Eskenazi & Ben Harris |date=August 17, 2007}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1UQvXxWK-ToC&pg=PA27 |title=Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible |author=Joshua Lesser, David Shneer and Judith Plaskow |publisher=NYU Press |year=2010 |page=27 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8147-4109-2}}

Kukla has also written for Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish responsibility, Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Culture and Lilith, and other anthologies.{{cite web|url=https://jewishhealingcenter.org/about-bajhs-overview/our-rabbis/|title=Our Rabbis|publisher=Jewishhealingcenter.org|accessdate=December 28, 2017|archive-date=December 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228171600/https://jewishhealingcenter.org/about-bajhs-overview/our-rabbis/|url-status=dead}}

Before moving to San Francisco, he served congregations in his hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as well as West Hollywood, California and Lubbock, Texas.