BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In the beginning, they were a novelty. A decade ago, they were a minority. And now, 26 years after Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religon ordained the first American woman, female rabbis are poised to become the norm in the country's largest branch of Judaism.
Although men still outnumber women in American Reform congregations, rabbinical classes at HUC-JIR are now roughly half of each. When the future rabbis return Aug. 31 to the school's Clifton campus, women will slightly outnumber men; the New York and Los Angeles campuses are also evenly divided between men and women.
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Rockdale Temple rabbinic intern Roxanne Schneider plays with Gavi Ballaban, 5.
(Yoni Pozner photo)
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Now that women rabbis are an accepted fact of Reform Jewish life, the concerns they face are shifting. Few newly ordained women today worry about finding a job or encountering hostile congregants. They and the people they lead now notice more subtle issues: the balance between the rabbinate and a personal life, language in prayers and texts, differing concepts of God, and yarmulkes made of lace. The issues represent ways in which women are changing Judaism for all Jews.
"Now when you go to shul (synagogue), you see what we're ultimately about is transformation," said Rabbi Laura Geller of Beverly Hills' Temple Emanuel, the first woman to head a 900-plus-member congregation in the United States.
"When Judaism really includes women's voices, our tradition will have been transformed and it will have been transformed for all of us. It starts at equality and it moves to transformation." The transformation began June 3, 1972, in Plum Street Temple, when Hebrew Union President Dr. Alfred Gottschalk ordained 26-year-old Sally Priesand, the first woman rabbi in North America. Rabbi Priesand, who was refused interviews early in her career because of her sex, is now senior rabbi at Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, N.J. Hebrew Union did not ordain another woman -- Rabbi Geller -- until 1976, and by the end of the 1970s there were only 12 women rabbis in the United States. But the numbers increased steadily through the 1980s and 1990s. Women now make up 16 percent of the 1,746 Reform rabbis who belong to the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The Conservative movement, which began ordaining women in 1985, has 93 women rabbis to date and roughly one-third female enrollment in its Jewish Theological Seminary. The Reconstructionist movement also ordains women, but the Orthodox rabbinate is still all-male. "The revolution occurred here when Sally was ordained. We began the revolution," said Rabbi Kenneth Ehrlich, dean and director of HUC-JIR's rabbinic school. "What began at Hebrew Union College, you can't go back and no one wants to go back. It's part and parcel of American Jewish life."
There are still areas of concern. Of the Reform movement's so-called "E" congregations -- those with 900 or more members -- only two are headed by women. Some think it's because women still aren't being encouraged to apply for the top jobs. Others think women -- and increasing numbers of men -- are opting for less-demanding jobs in favor of a balanced life.
"What does it mean to be successful? Is it the same ladder as it is in the corporate world, that when you get the biggest, brightest building you've won?" said Alexis Berk, a rabbinic student at HUC-JIR and intern at Temple Sholom in Amberley Village. "There's little allure in that for me. When I think about my potential children, it doesn't compute for me."
Some want the Reform movement to better address the issue of sexual harassment. Others want better parenting policies, or more progress on gay and lesbian concerns, or a more feminist-oriented curriculum in rabbinic programs. And some just want congregants, many of them well-meaning, to feel more comfortable with a woman leading prayers.
"Even if we get to be half the rabbis out there -- I have 1,000 members in my congregation, and none of them had this experience growing up," said Rabbi Amy Schwartzman, senior rabbi at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va., the other female head of an "E" congregation. "That contributes to feelings of being different and not being fully accepted."
Amid the challenges that still exist, women rabbis see myriad opportunities for the transformation of Judaism. They have created rituals -- for divorces, miscarriages, a 50th birthday or a child leaving home -- that bring a Jewish perspective to many of life's transitions.
They are changing the language of the prayer books to make them gender-neutral, provoking the same sort of debate that many Christian denominations face. They are producing feminist interpretations of ancient texts, prompting men and women alike to search for new meanings in old stories.
And they are changing theology, prayer and worship, re-evaluating millennia of tradition to see how it fits on women.
"When women began to address the issue of what we wear when we pray," Rabbi Geller said, "the first question was, are these Jewish prayer clothes or Jewish men's prayer clothes?"
Many women tried on the kippah, or skull cap, and tallit, or prayer shawl, that Jewish men had always worn at prayer. Some felt uncomfortable, others loved them, and still others created new versions: kippot in lace or pink, ones that matched their outfits. Men's kippot eventually became more colorful as well.
Part of the transformation also involves realizing the limits of the changes of the past 26 years. Roxanne Schneider, an HUC-JIR student and rabbic intern at Rockdale Temple in Amberley Village, realizes that the history of women many seek in Judaism is often simply not retrievable.
"We're striving more to learn to search for women's voices in texts, but in the Jewish tradition those voices aren't always easy to find," she said. "I've come to understand there aren't a lot of voices out there, and I need to put my own perspective -- as a woman but also as myself -- on what I read and what I learn."
Yet many women want to be thought of simply as rabbis, not as women rabbis and not with the fanfare that greeted Rabbi Priesand 26 years ago.
"I don't feel like it's any sort of struggle to be a woman at HUC. It feels like that's the way it's supposed to be," Mrs. Berk said. "The women who came before me fought it, the women before me were the pioneers and we are reaping the benefits. It takes a special gift to be a pioneer and change a whole system, and I'm tremendously grateful I'm not the one who had to make that change."
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