Rab­bi Abby Stein is a Jew­ish edu­ca­tor, author, speak­er, and activist. She was born and raised in a Hasidic fam­i­ly of rab­binic descent, and is a direct descen­dant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. Abby attend­ed Yeshi­va, com­plet­ing a rab­bini­cal degree in 2011. In 2012, she left the Hasidic world to explore a self-deter­mined life. In 2015 Abby came out as a woman of trans expe­ri­ence. Since com­ing out, she has been work­ing to raise sup­port and aware­ness for trans rights and those leav­ing Ultra-Orthodoxy. 

Her sto­ry has been cov­ered in the New York Times, New York Post, Wall Street Jour­nal, New York Mag­a­zine, Jew­ish Dai­ly For­ward, Dai­ly Mail, NBC, Vogue, InStyle, and more, as well as live appear­ances on CNN, Fox News, Huff­Post Live, Show­Time, NowThis, Pop­Sug­ar and inter­na­tion­al­ly. In 2016, Abby was named by The Jew­ish Week as one of the ​“36 Under 36” young Jews who are inspir­ing change in the world. In 2018 she was award­ed the Pride Award by the Brook­lyn Bor­ough Pres­i­dent. She stud­ied gen­der stud­ies and polit­i­cal sci­ence at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty in New York City. 

Her mem­oir Becom­ing Eve: My Jour­ney from Ultra-Ortho­dox Rab­bi to Trans­gen­der Woman was pub­lished by Seal Press in Novem­ber 2019. She speaks reg­u­lar­ly at uni­ver­si­ties, syn­a­gogues, and Jew­ish orga­ni­za­tions across the globe, includ­ing the 92nd Street Y, Kof­fler Cen­ter for the Arts in Toron­to, OUT@NBC Uni­ver­sal, and at the 2019 Women’s March in Wash­ing­ton, DC.