This Week
Songs For Sopranos
Women rabbis celebrate 16 years
of Conservative ordination.
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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treaming down the hallway
from the Jewish Theological
Seminary cafeteria Sunday
night came an unusual
sound: 100 female voices, undisturbed
by tenor or bass, joyously singing the
blessing after meals.
Not only did all the voices belong to
women, but almost all belonged to
rabbis or rabbinical students.
It was a significant moment in a
Conservative movement where women
comprise less than 10 percent of the
rabbinical pool, and where the deci-
sion to ordain women 16 years ago
came only after long and divisive
debate.
Gathered from around the United
States and Israel, the rabbis were cele-
brating their growing numbers — now
more than 120 -- and the influence
they believe they are having on the
movement.
"You have to know that your pres-
ence has transformed the Jewish
world," Francine Klagsbrun said in a
keynote address. Klagsbrun, a writer,
was one of the members of the 1985
commission that recommended female
ordination.
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Witness Question
The two-day conference, which was for
women only and was mostly closed to
the press, combined study of Jewish
texts, workshops on "nurturing our-
selves" as individuals and spiritual lead-
ers, and lively dancing to the music of
Mikveh, a female klezmer band.
In the hallways, participants talked
of their victories and ongoing chal- •
lenges and swapped news about their
children.
One of the highest remaining barri-
ers they face is the Conservative move-
ment's refusal to recognize women as
witnesses in marriage, conversion or
divorce.
That issue, which was not on the
conference agenda but was discussed in
the halls, is currently under discussion
by the movement's law committee.
It appears to be widely flouted by
women rabbis.
Several women at the conference
said they already serve as witnesses,
which does not pose a problem for
their communities. Others said they
hope the law committee will rule in
their favor.
The witness question was one of
several raised informally in signs post-
ed on a pillar in the lobby, with
answers scrawled in crayon.
Most respondents wrote that they
serve as witnesses, but make sure to
inform their congregants of the
"implications" — the fact that some
people may not recognize a ceremony
with female witnesses as valid.
Among other questions on the pil-
lar: "Does your spouse play a
rebbetzin" — using the word for a
rabbi's wife -- "role in your profes-
i onal life?" (Answers ranged from
"Heck no," to "They sent me home so
he could build the sukkah"); "What
stereotypes have you encountered?"
("Young, cute, sexy;" "The best part of
having you for a rabbi is I get to kiss
you"); "Why/why not do you wear a
yarmulke and tefillin?"
Many congregations remain appre-
hensive about hiring women rabbis,
and balancing a perpetually on-call
career with family life is difficult.
Rabbi Avis Miller, of Adas Israel
Congregation in Washington D.C.,
said women rabbis may ultimately per-
suade synagogues to treat them like
doctors who have practices.
Instead of expecting each rabbi to be
available around the clock, she said,
synagogues with more than one rabbi
may simply ensure that one rabbi is on
call at all times, freeing others to
spend time with their families.
Times Change
Those rabbis around long enough to
remember the last conference corn-
memorating Conservative women rab-
bis — in 1995 — said the mood has
changed markedly in just six years.
At that 10th anniversary of female
ordination, said Rabbi Debra
Newman Kamin of Am Yisrael
Conservative Congregation in subur-
ban Chicago, the debate over whether
or not to ordain women was revisited
SOPRANOS
on page 24