Groundbreaking Achievement

First woman Conservative senior rabbi serving a large congregation is hired in New Jersey.

CHANAN TIGAY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Rabbi
Rosto

South Orange, NJ.
wenty years after the Conservative movement began ordaining women as
rabbis, a large New Jersey congregation has chosen a woman to fill its
top rabbinic post, a development movement leaders are hailing as
"groundbreaking."
The board of Congregation Beth El in South Orange voted March 7 to
appoint Rabbi Francine Roston, 36, as the synagogue's spiritual leader. The shul
boasts 575 families.
Once it becomes official — the contract has not yet been finalized — Rabbi
Roston's appointment as senior rabbi will be the first of a woman to such a post
at a Conservative synagogue with more than 500 families.
"We see this as groundbreaking," said Rabbi Perry Raphael Rank, president of
the Rabbinical Assembly, the Conservative movement's rabbinical arm.
"It's groundbreaking from the perspective that we have been talking about a
glass ceiling, and she has broken that glass ceiling and risen to a much larger con-
gregation than women have risen to until this point," said, Rabbi Rank, who is
the spiritual leader of Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y.
Rabbi Roston, who, since 1999 has been rabbi of Congregation Beth Tikvah
in New Milford, N.J., will be replacing the synagogue's longtime rabbi, Jehiel
Orenstein, who held the pulpit for 35 years.
"Our feeling was, all things being equal, we would probably have hired a male

T

rabbi — but all things weren't equal," said Aaron Nierenberg, co-chair of Beth
El's search committee.
"Rabbi Roston impressed us with her knowledge, sense of energy, sense of
humor, warmth. Most specifically, she has a record of achievement. When she

GROUNDBREAKING on page 78

Homegrown Rabbi

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Staffriter

W bile the hiring of the first woman
Conservative rabbi to serve a congregation
of more than 500 families is enormous
news within the movement, it is also locally signifi-
cant.
Rabbi Francine Roston, 36, the new spiritual leader
and rabbi of the 575-family Congregation Beth El in
South Orange, N.J., is a Detroiter — born and bred.
And Detroit is also where the inspiration for her
career path began.
After attending nursery school at Adat Shalom
Synagogue, Rabbi Roston's family joined Temple Beth
El, where she graduated from religious high school
and was confirmed.
Although her mother, Charlene Green of
Farmington Hills, said, "Francine knew from the time
she was a little kid that she would become a rabbi;"
Rabbi Roston remembers it was at Beth El that the
motivation continued.
"I considered Rabbi Norman Roman — now at
Temple Kol Ami — one of my role models for the
rabbinate," Rabbi Roston said. "Watching him truly
inspired me."

"When Francine was in college," said her mother,
"she was invited to come back [to Beth El] to speak,
as someone who won an award every year that she was
in Hebrew school there."
"Giving that sermon was the fulfillment of a wish
she had," Green said.
Rabbi Roston left home in 1986 to attend
Kalamazoo College. "I knew I wanted to be a rabbi,"
she said, "but I chose Kalamazoo so that I could have
a strong liberal arts program and run cross-country.
"After two years, however, I had taken all the theol-
ogy classes and wanted to study Judaic studies. I trans-
ferred to Brandeis University and graduated in 1990
with a bachelor's degree in Near Eastern and Judaic
studies."
Brandeis is where she met her husband, Marc, now
a senior portfolio manager in the New York City
office of Silver Creek Capital Management, a Seattle-
based investment firm.
"His sister and I were suitemates and when he had
spring break from Carnegie-Mellon University [in
Pittsburgh], he came to visit," Rabbi Roston said.
His parents also met at Brandeis."
The Rostons have two children: Abigail, 5, and
Simon, 2.
From Brandeis, Rabbi Roston moved on to the

Jewish Theological Seminary Rabbinical School in
New York, where she was ordained. Her classmate was
Rabbi Joseph Krakoff of Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
"I remember sharing wonderful Shabbat dinners
together with her and our spouses, Susan and Marc,"
Rabbi Krakoff said. "I really got to know Francine
when she served as the head gabbai [service coordina-
tor] of the Seminary synagogue and saw firsthand
what strong leadership skills she possessed.
"I am excited for her on this great accomplish-
ment," he said. "Rabbi Roston is an inspiring leader
and a wonderful role model of liddishkeit
[Jewishness] and what it means to love being Jewish."
After her second year at JTS, Rabbi Roston said, "I
took a year off to work as a hospital chaplain in
Chicago and spend more time with Marc, who was
working toward his Ph.D. in economics at the
University of Chicago."
After completing a yearlong work-study clinical
pastoral education residency program, she became a
nationally certified hospital chaplain before returning
to the JTS rabbinic program.
Rabbi Roston was chosen by her classmates to
speak at her JTS ordination.

HOMEGROWN on page 78

4/7
2005

77