Elizabeth walked down the stairs, ready for her breakfast. To her young surprise, as she walked into the kitchen, her mother was crying. She asked, “ Mommy, why are you crying?” Her mother answered, “Because today, Elizabeth, a woman rabbi was ordained. Now I know that you can truly do anything. ”
That was in 1972. Elizabeth was 3. Today, 35 years later, Elizabeth is a rabbi in New York.
The woman that caused Elizabeth's mother to weep tears of joy and jubilation was Sally J. Priesand, who “just happened to be in the right place at the right time”. In fact, she was ordained fully fifty years after the HUC faculty formally agreed to ordain women rabbis.
Sally was not the first to pursue ordination. She was the first to be successful. When one asks Sally why it was she that was the first, she will hedge the question. Because the answer is not necessarily clear. Perhaps it was because of her academic prowess; perhaps it was because, quite simply, because the leadership was ready to “risk it”.
However it came to be: it radically altered the rabbinate. The struggle wasn't easy. As Ms. Magazine wrote in 1982: “When Sally Priesand was ordained as the first woman rabbi, her challenges weren't over”.
Laura Geller writes “ Most of them ( classmates) believe that because there were women rabbis and women rabbinic students, we had already succeeded in reaching equality and equal opportunity. “ ( 69) yet, what rabbi geller found was a very hard road, indeed: “ only other women understood the pressure of being a pioneer, of wanting to be considered as capable as the men without being forced to give up my own sense of balance. . . “ (69-70)
Laura Geller: “ Women rabbis have changed the face of Judaism. At the simplest level, the change is obvious. As Rabbi Ellen Lewis wrote a few years ago: When I first assumed my present pulpit, I tried to do everything just like my predecessor did. I had great respect for his work in the congregation and was not looking to be revolutionary. I just wanted to be the rabbi. What I found that, even if I did the same things he did, when I did it looked and sounded different”
Story-hair/ makeup, etc.
“ people experience women rabbis differently from the way they experience male rabbis. And that changes everything-the way they experience prayer, their connection ot the tradition, and even their image of divinity. “
From concern over “who would raise the children” to assertions that women would abandon the rabbinate as soon as “they found a husband”, the stereotypes flew. And, the prediction that many congregation wouldn't hire women rabbis rang all too true in the early years. More than one female colleague struggled to find a position.
While there are still significant struggles, let me focus, instead, on the incredible successes of the last 35 years:
As of June 5, there are 511 female rabbis in the Reform movement. To compare, there are approximately 3,000 total living Reform rabbis.
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary and ordaining body of the Reform Movement, welcomes at least fifty percent women every academic year.
Let me highlight how different that is: in the classroom building on the Cincinnati campus, when Sally was a student: there was no bathroom for girls. She had to go to another building to use the restroom!
Lets' discuss the less tangible for a moment. As Gary Zola writes in his introduction to Women rabbis: exploration and celebration: “ women rabbis have affected the fundamental nature of contemporary Jewish ritual, liturgy and theology.” ( 7)
In assuming the tasks that have long been reserved exclusively for the male sphere, women have faced another crucial challenge that modernity poses for jews and Judaism: the quest for spiritual meaning and fulfillment in the modern world.
What are the challenges for the next 35?
- salary
- definition of success ( 75)
- maternity leave
referred to as the “woman rabbi” or the “cute rabbi”
for years, just wanted to be referred to as “rabbi” with no descriptor in front. At times, the adjectives are slightly patronizing. But, today, I feel differently. I wish for the patronizing to disappear-but I wear my adjectival title with pride. I proudly advertise that I am the only female rabbi in san Antonio; I brag about my role with the women's rabbinic network.
This is a fairly recent change for me. I can date it, almost exactly, to May 2, 2007. That evening, the WRN celebrated Sally Priesand, on the occasion of her retirement. As approximately 100 women rabbis, we thanked her for her courage, her strength, and her sense of humor. We thanked her for forging a path, so that we could take that road, and pave it just a little bit deeper, and perhaps a little wider.
At the end of the evening, Sally received a number of gifts. One was seemingly simple, but profound in impact: a hoodie sweatshirt. On the front, her name, Sally, was emblazoned. Below it was the number “1”
On the back of the sweatshirt, in tiny print, was the name of every woman who had been ordained by HUC-JIR since 1972. My name was on that sweatshirt, as a select group of women who had helped to shape the Reform Movement; who attempt to bring God and Jewish tradition to different and deeper places.
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