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. 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