The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement. It organizes conferences and coordinates the Joint Placement Commission of the Conservative movement. Members of the RA serve as rabbis, educators, community workers and military and hospital chaplains around the world.
The role(s) of women in Judaism is determined by the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law, by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature mention various female role models, religious law treats women differently in various circumstances.
Jewish Renewal is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and musical practices. Specifically, it seeks to reintroduce the "ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and meditation, gender equality and ecstatic prayer" to synagogue services. It is distinct from the baal teshuva movement of return to Orthodox Judaism.
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. RRC has an enrollment of approximately 80 students in rabbinic and other graduate programs.
Asenath Barzani (1590–1670), was a renowned Kurdish and Jewish woman who lived in Iraq. Her writings demonstrate her mastery of Hebrew, Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalah.
Blu Greenberg is an American writer specializing in modern Judaism and women's issues. Her most noted books are On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition (1981), and Black Bread: Poems, After the Holocaust (1994).
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
Rachel Adler is professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at Hebrew Union College, at the Los Angeles campus. Adler was one of the first theologians to integrate feminist perspectives and concerns into Jewish texts and the renewal of Jewish law and ethics. Her approach to God is Levinasian and her approach to gender is constructivist.
Haviva Ner-David received her PhD from Bar Ilan University and wrote her thesis concerning the nature of the relationship between Tumah and Niddah. In 1993 she applied to Yeshiva University’s rabbinical program, RIETS and never received an official response. Despite this early rejection, she went on to become one of the first women known to have controversially been granted the equivalent of Orthodox Semicha, which she received from Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Strikovsky of Tel-Aviv in 2006. In 2000 she wrote a book documenting her journey and aspirations as a female rabbi entitled, Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination. She is the founding director of Reut: The Center for Modern Jewish Marriage and self identifies as a “post-denominational rabbi.” She advocates arguably non-Orthodox practices such as egalitarian Tefilah and unmarried women practicing mikveh before engaging in pre-marital sex.
Neshama Carlebach is a teacher, entertainer, singer, and the protégé of her late father, Shlomo Carlebach. Her career as a recording artist and as an occasional essayist has reached interfaith communities and has addressed social issues in America, Israel and Jewish communities spanning the world. While her spiritual origins were within the Orthodox Jewish community, she has also found a community in the Reform Jewish movement and beyond.
Havurat Shalom is a small egalitarian chavurah in Somerville, Massachusetts. Founded in 1968, it is not affiliated with the major Jewish denominations.
Michael Strassfeld is an American rabbi.
With some rare exceptions, women historically have generally not served as rabbis until the 1970s and the influence of second-wave feminism, when the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion first ordained women rabbis. Today, female rabbis are ordained within all branches of Progressive Judaism, while in mainstream Orthodox Judaism, women cannot become rabbis.
Orthodox Jewish feminism is a movement in Orthodox Judaism which seeks to further the cause of a more egalitarian approach to Jewish practice within the bounds of Jewish Law. The major organizations of this movement is the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) in North America, and Women of the Wall (WOW) and its affiliates in Israel and internationally, known as ICWOW - The International Committee for Women of the Wall. In Israel, the leading Orthodox feminist organization is Kolech <http://www.kolech.org.il>, started by Dr. Hannah Kehat. Australia has one Orthodox partnership minyan, Shira Hadasha <http://www.shira.org.au>, in Melbourne.
Martha Neumark (1904–1981) was an important figure in the history of women's ordination as rabbis.
Linda Joy Holtzman is an American rabbi and author. In 1979 she became one of the first women in the United States to serve as the presiding rabbi of a synagogue, when she was hired by Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County, which was then located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. She had graduated in 1979 from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, yet was hired by Beth Israel despite their being a Conservative congregation. Holtzman was thus the first woman to serve as a rabbi for a solely Conservative congregation, as the Conservative movement did not then ordain women. However, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso served as rabbi along with her husband at the congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis from 1977 until 2013; Beth El Zedeck is identified with both the Reconstructionist and Conservative movements. In 1979 The New York Times published the article "Only Female Presiding Rabbi in U.S. Begins Her Work in a Small Town", in which the author described Holtzman's hiring as "a marked breakthrough for the growing numbers of women who have faced obstacles in becoming a rabbi-in-charge", and quoted Holtzman as saying "the fact that I have an appointment in a small town and that they have entrusted me with functions they believe are important is very significant for women and for the Jewish community". In 1981 Holtzman became the first female rabbi to give a keynote speech for the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jews.
Women's Rabbinic Network is an American national organization for female Reform rabbis. It was founded in 1975 by female rabbinic students. Rabbi Deborah Prinz was its first overall coordinator and Rabbi Myra Soifer was the first editor of its newsletter.
This is a timeline of women rabbis in the United States.
Edward Feld, born 1943, is a Conservative rabbi and author. He served as the Senior Editor of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly's High Holiday maḥzor Maḥzor Lev Shalem (2010), which was the first Conservative Jewish liturgical publication to include passages aimed at the needs of gay couples. Feld currently serves as the Senior Editor of the Rabbinical Assembly's forthcoming Shabbat & Festivals prayer book Siddur Lev Shalem, a followup to the maḥzor preceding it, similarly laced with commentaries and contemporarily-sensitive alternative textual options.
This is a timeline of female rabbis.
