Women rabbis and Torah scholars
With few, rare historical exceptions, such as the case of Asenath Barzani, Jewish women were first offered the possibility for ordination or an equivalent role beginning in the 1920s,[9] but it was not until the 1970s when this became widely accepted.
[11] During the 1930s, Regina Jonas of Germany became the first recorded instance of a Jewish woman in modern times receiving formal rabbinical ordination.
However, these instances recorded throughout Jewish history and tradition were perceived as rare, and highly exceptional cases of women occupying rabbinic posts.
In the early portions of the Bible, the Hebrew Matriarchs seem to only be mentioned in connection with their husbands or sons, indicating an absence of the feminine voice and narrative in biblical history, an understandable position in a patriarchal society.
[19] However, in the rabbinic tradition, the position of the matriarchs are reinterpreted to highlight their honored status, minimizing actions in the biblical narrative that indicate wrongdoing on their part.
[25] Alternatively, other Rabbinic authorities understand Deborah's role to be one that advised Jewish judges, but she herself did not render religious legal rulings.
Nevertheless, the Talmudic figure of Bruriah (2nd century) is described as participating in Jewish legal debates, challenging the rabbis of the time.
The daughters of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, living in France in the 11th–12th century, are the subject of Jewish legends claiming that they possessed unusual Torah scholarship.
[60] In the United States, there was one early example of a Jewish woman who, without formal ordination, assumed certain functions typically associated with congregational rabbis.
During the 1890s, a young woman living on the American frontier named Rachel ("Ray") Frank assumed a religious leadership role, delivering sermons, giving public lectures and reading scripture.
[62][63][64] According to one account, Aronsohn began providing public lectures to the Jewish community in Shreveport, Louisiana to earn enough money to pursue her rabbinical training.
In 1904, the National Council of Jewish Women in New York City announced that Henrietta Szold would undertake rabbinical studies but would receive no graduating diploma upon completing the course.
[78] In the mid-1920s, Avis Clamitz (wife of Charles E. Shulman) enrolled in a rabbinical program and later periodically served as a rabbi in an unofficial capacity for small congregations in Virginia.
[81][82] Irma Lindheim, the National President of Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America was reported to be enrolled as a candidate for rabbinical ordination.
[83][84] Around this time in Germany, the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, the rabbinic seminary of German Jewry began admitting women to study higher learning without the offer of ordination.
The first woman to graduate from the seminary was Ellen Littmann (1909–1975) who later went on to teach biblical studies at Leo Baeck College in London.
[88] Montagu was also noted by Rabbi Max Routtenberg of the Rabbinical Assembly as being one of the only women to regularly serve as spiritual leader to a Reform/Liberal congregation.
[93] In 1939, Helen Levinthal (despite the denial of her ordination) was also described as a "woman rabbi" due to her completion of her studies, her public lectures, and her occasional opportunities to lead congregational services.
[94] Other instances of women serving as a pulpit leader of an American Jewish community, without formal ordination, were Tehilla Lichtenstein (1893–1973) and Paula Ackerman (1893–1989).
[89][99][100] Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the efforts to shift the status quo on women gained momentum and institutional support.
The National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, led by Jane Evans, publicly campaigned for the recognition of women rabbis.
[17] In terms of women-led institutions of higher Jewish learning (yeshivot), the first appearance of such a program began with the efforts of Malka Bina in Israel.
[14] With the topic raised again, eventual support for the change gave way to the 1972 ordination of Sally Priesand as the first female Reform rabbi.
Dreyfus found that initially, many congregations were reluctant to accept a woman officiant at Jewish funerals, or to for her to provide rabbinic counselling, or to lead prayer services.
The resistance to women's ordination was couched in the context of Jewish Law, however, the JTS resolution contains political and social considerations as well.
[145] In 1983, the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, voted, without accompanying opinion, to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors.
[152][153][154] Hurwitz's rabbinic title was initially "maharat", an acronym of manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit, (authority of Jewish law and spirituality).
[196][197][198] These certifications are obtained by study at seminaries such as Midreshet Lindenbaum and its "Women's Institute of "Halakhic Leadership";[199] Without granting ordination, two other programs mirror the Rabbinate's ordination requirements for men include Ein HaNetziv, which trains students as "Teachers of Halacha"; and Matan, for recognition as "meshivot halacha" or halakhic respondents.
[201] In 2016, Kolech launched an initiative called "Shabbat Dorshot Tov" which promoted women speakers and scholars in residence in dozens of Orthodox synagogues across Israel.
At times, these portrayals appear realistic such as in Marcia R. Rudin's Hear My Voice (2017), while others stretch the bounds of the plausible such as in Seth B. Goldberg's The Rabbi of Resurrection Bay (2015).
