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Carving Out
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Feminism confronts Conservative
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LARRY DERFNER

Special to The Jewish News -

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SOCIETY'

Help us keep winning.

eersheba — A woman
was chased out of her
Jerusalem synagogue
one recent morning when she
dared join the minyan wear-
ing tefillin.
An uproar occurred in an
Ashkelon synagogue when a
woman made her aliya to the
Torah wearing a sleeveless
dress.
These scenes didn't happen
in Orthodox synagogues;
there, women are forbidden to
join the minyan or go up to
the Torah no matter what
they're wearing.
These events took place in
synagogues belonging to the
Israeli Conservative move-
ment, which, as flexible and
tolerant as it may be corn-
pared to the Orthodox estab-
lishment, is still in turmoil
over what to do about wom-
en.
Unlike in the U.S., Conser-
vative Judaism is a tiny
stream in Israel, with only
17,000 adherents, 40 con-
gregations, and 11 rabbis to
serve them. Israelis general-
ly see it as another offbeat no-
tion brought over by the silly
Americans.
Marriages and conversions
performed by Conservative
rabbis in Israel have no legal
standing. The Chief Rabbi-
nate, which presides over the
state religion of Orthodox
Judaism, views the Conser-
vative movement, with its
"dynamic" and "developmen-
tal" approach to Halachah
(Jewish law) as heretical.

Larry Derfner is a freelance
reporter, based in Tel Aviv.

Given their insecure status,
and the relative weakness of
feminism in Israel, Conser-
vative Jews here have been
very hesitant about stepping
even further out of the main-
stream by granting religious
equality to women.
Few Conservative congrega-
tions admit women to the
minyan.
One synagogue in Ra'an-
ana still has separate sections
for men and women, although
it recently set aside mixed,
"egalitarian" seating in the
middle of the hall.
But the most unsettling
dispute of all is over women
who want to become rabbis.

The Israeli
Conservative
movement is still
in turmoil over
what to do about
women.

In August, Gilah Dror be-
came Israel's first Conser-
vative woman rabbi when she
took over the pulpit at Beer-
sheba's Congregation Eshel
Avraham. The congregation,
after some fits and starts,
voted her in overwhelmingly.
Afterward, the Conservative
Rabbinical Assembly of Israel
accepted her as a member.
The controversy, however, is
far from over. Ms. Dror, 41,
was not ordained in Israel,
because the Seminary of
Judaic Studies in Jerusalem,
which trains rabbis and
educators for the Israeli Con-
servative movement, does not
ordain women rabbis.
And while she is a member
of the Rabbinical Assembly,