Jewish Advocate

Women in rabbinical school outnumber men for first time

By Cara Hogan - Thursday July 3 2008


Dr. Arthur Greene

Reform female rabbis are no longer the exception

The role of women in Jewish life has grown substantially since the 1970s, encompassing leadership positions that were traditionally held by men, including in the rabbinate. And though the number of female rabbis has grown slowly over the years, the number of women in rabbinical school has recently surpassed the number of men.

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Dr. Arthur Greene, the rector of Hebrew College in Newton, said that the amount of women rabbinical students at his transdenominational school has reached record heights.
“More than 50 percent of our students are now women,” said Greene. “We have been pretty evenly balanced until now, but there has been in the last 10 years a trend toward more women rabbis.”
This subtle shift in gender marks a significant change in the make-up of Jewish leadership and culture. Now, young children will more often than not grow up viewing a woman as the head of their Reform congregation, making female rabbis the norm rather than the exception.
“I think we passed the generation where women coming into the rabbinate were struggling to figure out, ‘Can I find a place in this male dominated profession and tradition?’” said Greene. “The women coming in were raised in an egalitarian community. It’s a continuation of the way they were brought up, not a dramatic break.”
Greene said they welcome women at the school, but he still worries about the decrease in male students.
“There is a danger if the profession becomes over-dominated by women and men avoid it,” said Greene. “We don’t want that either. We want to see more equality.”
Though many agree with Greene that too many women could be a problem, others celebrate the dominance of women in the profession.
Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, co-president of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, was ordained in 1986 as one of the first 100 female rabbis in the country. She said the increase in the number of women is amazing, but they still do not enjoy complete equality.
“I do think there are certain difficulties facing women rabbis even today,” said Elwell. “Women professionals across the board are not treated the same as their male counterparts. We’re still fighting the whole issue of our family lives; do we have an appropriate marital status, should we be having children while we’re in the rabbinate?”
Elwell said Judaism is deeply patriarchal and female rabbis are sometimes facing institutional sexism.
“We have to deal with it individual by individual – that’s how we break down sexism just like we break down racism and homophobia,” added Elwell, who is also an out lesbian rabbi and co-editor of the book, “Lesbian Rabbis, the First Generation.”
“The good news is there are many more women in the rabbinate and we’re changing the model of what Jewish leadership is about with strong, thoughtful women; some of whom are lesbians,” said Elwell. “Women rabbis are in a wonderfully exciting position. We’re preserving the tradition and also challenging it.”
Traditionally, women could not become rabbis, but the feminist movement and the Reform Movement combined to allow women the freedom to become leaders of a congregation.
Judith Rosenbaum, the director of Public History for the Jewish Women’s Archive, explained that the history of women in the rabbinate has been different in each denomination.
“The Reform movement was the first to ordain women with Rabbi Sally Priesands in 1972,” said Rosenbaum. “The Reconstructionist movement was the next to ordain women in 1974. Then the Conservative movement made the decision in 1983 after a lot of debate and in 1985 the first Conservative woman was ordained, Amy Alberg.”
Conservative schools have not had the same strong growth in female rabbis as the Reform schools, but the numbers have been increasing. In 2007, 37 percent of the students in the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary Conservative in New York were women.
But female rabbis like Elwell are not accepted by Orthodox Jews who maintain that rabbis should only be men.
“Within the Orthodox movement it’s still something that is in question,” said Rosenbaum. “There are Orthodox women who serve in congregational leadership roles. There was a woman who received private ordination from an Orthodox rabbi, but that’s not accepted by the community.”
Rosenbaum said that some Orthodox women are now studying privately, but it’s not clear whether those women will be considered rabbis. Drisha Institue for Jewish Education in New York is a women’s Talmud study center and has been teaching Orthodox women for years.
“Drisha is the precursor to having women as rabbis,” said Rosenbaum. “It’s creating a cadre of Jewish educated women. The question then is what the status of those women is in their community.”
Orthodox rabbis declined to comment on the issue, but many Orthodox women continue to study despite the restriction.
While the increase in women at rabbinical schools has encouraged some and worried others, many women say the battle for equality in the Jewish world has not ended.
“There are a lot of people who look at their community and say we have a female rabbi, so egalitarianism has been achieved,” said Rosenbaum. “It is a wonderful thing, but it’s a process and it’s not a complete one.”

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