MAY 25 • 2023 | 15

what the Jewish world had to 
offer, and I just had no idea,
” 
Lader said. 
Even with that, Lader said 
she was still on the science track 
through college, majoring in 
pre-med at the University of 
Maryland. But she also started 
taking Jewish studies as part of 
her college curriculum. She said 
she had all of her “real classes” 
in science, but all her electives 
were in Jewish studies. 
At this time, a congregation 
nearby had an opening for a 
youth director and she applied. 
“I really connected with 
working with Jewish teens and 
between my Jewish studies 
classes, those were the parts 
I was really looking forward 
to in my life,
” she said. “Some 
brilliant adviser said to me, you 
don’t have to do that [stick with 
science]. You can do something 
you enjoy, and that was a really 
big deal.
“That’s when I wanted to 
become a rabbi,
” she added. 
“
And the thing I love about both 
science and the rabbinate is that 
I get to walk through the world 
with a sense of awe … it’s the 
best decision I ever made.
” 

RABBI ARIANNA GORDON
You could say Rabbi Gordon’s 
path to the rabbinate officially 
started earlier in life. 
“I had the best time at my bat 
mitzvah. I had a younger cousin 
who kept asking if I was nervous 
on the day of, and I would tell 
him how much fun I was hav-
ing,
” Gordon said. “That was the 
first time it occurred to me that 
this could be interesting.
”
Gordon said she began to 
talk about being a rabbi at 
13. Over the next decade, she 
learned more about what that 
could mean. She chose Brandeis 
University for its Judaic studies 
and taught religious school 
throughout college as well. 
One summer during college, 
she purposely worked a separate 
nine-to-five job, just to make 

sure she had chosen the right 
path as a teenager and it was 
clear. She applied to rabbinical 
school. 
Gordon focused on education 
in her rabbinate, and she joined 
Temple Israel in 2011 as the 
temple’s director of education. 

ROLE MODELS FOR
THE COMMUNITY
All four of Temple Israel’s 
female rabbis have become 
role models in the community 
in several facets of Jewish life. 
They have also become role 
models for young women and 
girls who would like to follow 
them on a similar path. 
“It’s funny. I never consid-
ered the fact that I hadn’t met 
a female rabbi when I decided 
I want to be a rabbi,” Kaluzny 
said. “I’m all for anyway I can 
help girls not think twice about 
it. I never thought about break-
ing a glass ceiling or even con-
tinuing breaking a glass ceiling, 
I just want it to be another one 
of the choices that girls have 
because they should always 
have those choices.” 
Hornsten added, “How mag-
nificent is it that you have all 
these female rabbi role models? 
I had to seek them out when 
I was thinking of going to 
rabbinical school, which I did. 
And these young girls don’t 
have to do that, they see us. 
“There was one little girl 
who used to dress up and play 
‘Rabbi Marla.’ I thought it was 
so sweet and a sea change from 
prior generations. Our young 
girls don’t even give it a second 
thought whether they can be 
rabbis … I was raised that I 
could be anything I wanted, but 
I didn’t have those role models 
and they have them in the four 
of us and see how people with 
different skills can be rabbis.” 

Temple Israel’s celebration of its female 

rabbis takes place 5:45-9 p.m. Friday, 

May 26. Register at www.temple-israel.

org/event/holysparks.

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Southfield, MI 48034

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Southfield, MI 48034
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Southfield, MI 48034
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