This Week
Cover Story
Who Are Our
Women Clergy?
Rabbi Lauren Berkun
Midwest rabbinic director of
Jewish Theological Seminary of
America national program,
Kollot: Voices of Learning.
Ordained at Rabbinical School of
the Jewish Theological Seminary
in New York City. She is married
to Rabbi Jonathan Berkun.
Rabbi Amy Ruth Bolton
Chaplain for Jewish Hospice
and Chaplaincy Network.
Ordained at Ziegler School of
Rabbinic Studies at University
of Judaism in Los Angeles. She
is married to Rabbi Scott
Bolton. They are the parents of
Shuli, 2, and Shiya, 9 months.
Cantor Lori Corrsin
Cantor at Temple Israel, invested
at HUC-JIR School of Sacred
Music in New York City. She is
married to Dr. Stephen Corrsin.
Their daughter is Alexandra, 10.
Rabbi Michele Faudem
Rabbi-in-residence at Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit. Ordained at the
Rabbinical School of the Jewish
Theological Seminary of
America in New York City. She
is married to Jeffrey Ershler and
mother of Tal Erschler, 2, and
Ari Erschler, 1.
Rabbi Miriam Jerris
Community development associ-
ate for the Society for Humanistic
Judaism in Farmington Hills.
Ordained through rabbinic pro-
gram at the International
Institute for Secular Humanistic
Judaism in Farmington Hills. She
is married to Stephen Stawicki.
Her children are Alison Jerris, 27,
and Michael Jerris, 25.
Rabbi Marla Feldman
Assistant director for domestic
concerns of the Jewish
Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit and exec-
utive director of Michigan
Board of Rabbis. Ordained at
HUC-JIR in New York City.
Rabbi Tamara Kolton
Rabbi of the Birmingham
Temple. Ordained at the
International Institute for
Secular Humanistic Judaism.
She is married to Isaac Kolton.
Their son Lior is 2.
"He comes to Shabbat services regularly —
even if I am at a retreat or other obligation that
takes me away from the service," she says of
Stern, the father of Erica, 11, and Jessica, 10.
"Balancing family time and temple time will be
a challenge, as I believe it is for every woman who
has a career," Rabbi Hornsten says. But it helps
that her new family is involved in synagogue life.
"For me, my mothering came before my rab-
binate," says Rabbi Miriam Jerris, community
development associate for the Society for
Humanistic Judaism in Farmington Hills. "My
professional life would have been very different if
my children were small," she says of Alison, 27,
and Michael, 25. "The calling to become a rabbi is
strong. I think as a woman it's a more complex
career choice than for men. It is completely
demanding. I have to be available to people all the
time."
"For me, there is no division between my family
and my temple," says Rabbi Tamara Kolton, a
Birmingham Temple rabbi who grew up as part of
the temple family. "My family belongs to this com-
munity as do some of my closest friends."
A native Detroiter, Rabbi Kolton is married to
Israeli Isaac Kolton. Their son Lior is 2.
"There's a fluidity and pleasure between what I do
here and what I do at home," Rabbi Kolton contin-
ues. "I never know what's coming next and that's
certainly a challenge, but I don't feel like we're living
in a pressure cooker. While the hours are unpre-
dictable, this is a wonderful job for a mother."
She credits her husband's support with enhancing
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Rabbi Marla Hornsten
Rabbi at Temple Israel.
Ordained at HUC-JIR. She is
engaged to be married to
Sheldon Ster n and will become
stepmother toliz children,
Erica Stern, 11, and jescica, 10.
my family and my career gives me a lot of energy. My
goal is to be fully present at temple and at home."
For both Rabbi Bolton and Rabbi Lauren Berkun,
Midwest rabbinic director of the West Bloomfield-
based Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS)
national program, "Kollot: Voices of Learning," the
decision to attend rabbinical school turned out to be
life altering in the most positive way — each met
her husband there.
"It is a major blessing for both of us to share the
rabbinate," says Rabbi Berkun, who was ordained
with her husband, Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, at the New York City-
b.sed rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological
Semn, ry of America. "It is easier in many ways to
be commis-e d to being Jewish communal leaders
together."
Rabbi Scott Bolton, director of community learn-
ing at Hillel Day School, describes his marriage to
another rabbi as "Ikeing with soni.one who helps me
be the best leader T can be. We both'- , unce things
off each other."
"The fact that [his wife] Amy and I are steep -eLk; n
community, in the love of the Jewish people and
learning, allows us to have the most blessed conversa-
tions," he says.
The two met in Jerusalem while attending the
Reform HUC-JIR, when their roommates arranged a
Shabbat dinner for the four of them. "Right after
Shabbos, I switched into Amy's classes," her hus-
band says.
When the Conservative Ziegler School of
Rabbinic Studies at University of Judaism in Los
Angeles announced they had created a rabbinic ordi-
nation program, they each made the choice to trans-
fer.
"They see
an opportunity A Calling
"People ask me all the time what it is like being a
woman
rabbi," Rabbi Hornsten says. "I always
available to
chuckle at the question. I can tell them what it is
them as Hillel like'to be a rabbi, from a woman's perspective."
"For me, I believe that becoming a rabbi was, in
fact,
a calling," she says: "When I realized that a
students. They see
rabbi could be any kind of person who was passion-
that because ate about Judaism, I realized that I had found my
niche. I loved Judaism and being a rabbi encom-
everything I ever wanted to do."
I am 'them.' I am passed
In the summer of 1987, today's Rabbi Bolton was
"Most likely to become a rabbi" at her camp
the Hillel student who voted
— the Union of American Hebrew Congregations'
became a rabbi." Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute camp in
—Rabbi Faudem
her role as a rabbi, but also is aware of what he gains
in the process. "An unexpected pleasure of my work-
ing is watching my son and my husband spend time
together," says Rabbi Kolton, who in 1999, became
the first ordained Humanistic rabbi.
She admits her days are long — but that's by
choice.
"My work is my passion and I have a lot of balls in
the air, but the expectation within me is that I also
want to be a mother," she says. "I don't want to miss
out on my son being 2. And the sense of gratitude of
being able to do what I want most in the world with
Oconomowoc, Wis.
"Camp was my entree into Judaism and Hebrew,"
Rabbi Bolton says. "In my two years there, I was
totally drawn into tefillah (prayer) and Israel. Being
able to understand Hebrew was really my gateway to
starting to go to services every week." During high
school, she became involved in her synagogue's
youth group; she spent a semester in college learning
at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
After completing an undergraduate degree in neuro-
science, she worked in an Alzheimer's center in her
hometown of Chicago, "but I kept hearing the calling
for the rabbinate," she says. "The calling was, and
continues to be, about healing from a spiritual angle
instead of a scientific one." She remembers making her