The Buck Stops at the Seminary

...The testimony showed an overwhelming consensus in favor of women's ordination, with opponents basing their arguments mainly upon fears of fragmenting the movement or else upon the reaction to such a move by the Orthodox...

...One sociologist who made an extensive study of the JTS during the late sixties (and who is now on its faculty) has written that the implicit goal of the faculty is "the recreation of a romanticized notion of 19th-century East European Jewish life...

...This woman's confused com- I ments hint at some deep tensions— J political and.ideological—which have been raised in many circles of the Conservative movement by the current controversy over the ordination of women as Conservative rabbis...

...So are you happy with the current policy of prohibiting qualified women candidates from becoming rabbis simply because of their sex...

...They may not read from the Torah, and they may not lead prayers or participate as part of the minyan (quorum for public prayer...

...The majority report accompanying the Commission's recommendations represented a ringing endorsement of the idea that "the flexibility and fluidity of halachah is one of the hallmarks of Conservative Judaism...

...At the Rabbinical Assembly convention held this January, Chancellor Cohen announced the Commission's recommendation (by a vote of 11 to 3) favoring the immediate admission of women into the JTS rabbinical school...

...Numerous impediments have been brought forward, yet no opponent has yet been able to assert flatly that ordination of women by JTS would violate halachah...

...Evidently, Conservative Judaism satisfies the needs of a large body of American Jews who feel completely at home in America, whose lives are dominated by secular contemporary values, but who are at the same time proud of their Judaism and wish in some way to preserve its traditions...

...Thus, those quasi-halachic objections which have been heard may be answered by the established rules and decisions of the RA Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the body which sets halachic norms for the movement...

...The Conservative movement has only one school for the training of its rabbis, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), located in New York City (with branches in Los Angeles and Jerusalem...

...Like every living organism, Jewish civilization is affected by, and also affects, its surroundings, and it is this process, from the Biblical period to the present, which is subjected to critical investigation...

...new prayers and customs be developed for Yom Ha'Atzmaut...

...First is an approach and methodology for the study of Judaism in his historical context...

...Their world, like ours, was aflame with secularism and with assimilation...

...Thus the buck was passed to the professors of the Seminary...

...In one recent anthology on contemporary moral problems in Jewish life which included more than twenty-five articles by Jewish scholars of all three denominations, only one contributor—Seymour Siegel—was from the JTS faculty...

...most never speak before Conservative congregations...

...The continued ban on women rabbis in the Conservative movement is thus viewed as inconsistent with elementary notions of equal opportunity increasingly central to contemporary American political culture...

...Conservative Judaism, in the view of the spokesmen, has three distinctive features, which, taken together, form an integrated program for the Jewish present and future, and owe little, if anything, to neo-Orthodox or classical Reform concepts...

...Women may not serve as witnesses in Jewish legal proceedings...

...Because their place is primarily in the home, there are even serious questions regarding whether women should be taught the Talmud and its commentaries at a level which would qualify them as rabbis...

...the speaker queried...

...It is ostensibly within this framework of thought that the issue of women's ordination will be worked out...

...Of Baghdad, we know that Yehudai Gaon sought to suppress Palestinian and North African minhagim because he saw in uniformity the only response to the threat of assimilation...

...The faculty has decided that the final decision will be made by a simple majority vote, not by the two-thirds majority which some had proposed...

...Because the issue itself is often misunderstood, it is best to state it clearly: The question is whether women should be permitted to apply 10, study, and become ordained at the rabbinical school of the Conservative movement...

...and most never concern themselves, even on a scholarly level, with contemporary issues such as intermarriage, women's rights, marriage, divorce or death, let alone such "secular" issues as Soviet Jewry, the nuclear proliferation, Jewish poverty, or medical ethics...

...Judaism is viewed as being in a continual state of adaptation, while retaining an essential continuity over time and between cultures...

...Although both the deliberations of the voting group and the vote itself will be secret, it is generally conceded by both sides that the final tally will be very close...

...The women's ordination issue therefore raises basic questions for Conservative Jews concerning the content and authority of halachah, the extent to which Jewish tradition evolves and by what mechanisms, and the degree to which our religious practices should be influenced by "external" factors...

...It is a goal so patently absurd that no one really dares to voice it openly...

...The founders and leading exponents of Conservative Judaism did not design or intend it merely as a pragmatic compromise between or an amalgam of, Orthodox and Reform principles...

...Although the values and traditions thus conserved need not be altered so as to ape those of the surrounding society, they must not be unconnected, iso- '[ lated, or unresponsive to contemporary circumstance...

...It is only in the Conservative movement, a movement committed to change within tradition...

...The Seminary is perceived as simply too distant from, and unconcerned with, the day-to-day concerns of Conservative Jews and their rabbis...

...During its two-year investigation the Commission heard and read thousands of pages of testimony from concerned individuals—lay leaders, rabbis, and scholars—who spoke at Commission hearings held in six cities in the United States and Canada...

...Growing out of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement in nineteenth century Germany, Historical Judaism, as the movement was originally known, emphasizes the interrelationships between social, economic, intellectual and cultural forces as determinants of the nature of Jewish life in each age...

...The Seminary will also be deciding whether Conservative Judaism intends to endorse its own most honorable tradition, and thereby maintain its stature as a major religious movement...

...But the RA membership was highly reluctant to interfere with the "internal" procedures of the Seminary and the Law Committee could not act because the question had not been properly presented to it for decision...

...Such a degree of aloofness from real-world concerns would be unthinkable among the faculties of other professional schools, such as law or medicine, which are aware (although sometimes insufficiently) of their obligation to provide solutions to the problems which confront their constituencies...

...The Commission...

...Chancellor Cohen, and Professors Seymour Siegel and Robert Gordis are among the notable exceptions to the prevailing Seminary pattern...

...Thus a largely neo-Orthodox body whose views are often inconsistent with the conception of the movement held by most of its members must now decide...

...The movement's three institutional arms—academic, rabbinic and congregational—manifest, each in its own way, the implementation of a policy of preserving traditional Jewish practices within the context of contemporary American culture...

...Both the halachah—as it is interpreted by the Orthodox—and the customs of the Jewish people pose insuperable obstacles for women as Orthodox rabbis...

...Still, the Rabbinical Assembly itself might have chosen to resolve the issue through its standing Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, a solution which would at least have ensured that the decision makers all had substantial exposure to the real-life concerns and needs of the Conservative Jewish community...

...THE EVE OF CHANGE THE BUCK STOPS AT THE SEMINARY MARK ROTENBERG Of course I'm opposed to having a woman rabbi here," declared a fashionably dressed female congregant during a question and answer session following a Friday night talk on women's ordination at a large suburban Conservative synagogue...

...The ideological chasm which exists between many—perhaps most—faculty members and the rest of the movement is not the only reason why many people think the JTS poorly suited to lead the movement and make critical decisions for it...

...Yet it is now the Seminary faculty which will have the final word on women's ordination...

...In June 1977, in response to increasing pressure to review its policy on women in the rabbinate, the movement's leaders agreed to establish a Commission for the Study of the Ordination of Women as Rabbis, which was charged with making an intensive investigation of all the issues involved and reporting its findings and recommendations to the 1979 Rabbinical Assembly convention...

...On the contrary, such values and traditions j ultimately retain their force only to j the extent that they respond with ] clarity to the dilemmas which confront Jews in their personal and communal lives jn each age...

...At the other end of the spectrum, in the Reform and Reconstructionist camps, where Jewish law rarely poses an impediment to changes in ritual, women have already been ordained and are now serving the Jewish community in a variety of rabbinic roles—in congregations, universities, and communal organizations...

...I didn't say anything about prohibiting," the woman retorted...

...The RA decision has generated considerable disappointment, for it is widely seen as an abnegation of responsibility...

...Despite Chancellor Cohen's courageous efforts to prod the Seminary into exercising a leadership function which, if energetically pursued, would lead to greater understanding and observance among the laity, the faculty appears bent on perpetuating a classic ivory tower environment...

...That continuity rests on devotion to Torah as the embodiment of God's law...

...In short, the question concerns the opportunity for women to pursue a religious calling free from an absolute barrier based solely upon sex...

...Who's talking about prohibiting...

...The result of this form of scholarship leads to certain intellectual conclusions which mark the second distinctive characteristic of the Conservative movement...

...And the alternatives are fairly clearcut: Will the Seminary mandate the exclusion of women from these leadership roles, despite their acknowledged capacity and desire, or will it not...

...Does it command respect, or is it, for all its convenience, an incoherent melange of theological and ethical norms...

...For now that the issue has been joined, there" is no way in which Conservative Judaism can deny women without denying itself as well...

...Those issues are further discussed by Jakob Petu-chowski in these pages...

...has reaffirmed our determination to respond to modernity, to resist fossilization...

...A popular topic for debate among Conservative rabbinical students is the authenticity of the Conservative approach...

...Its continued vitality among third and fourth generation Jews, however, gives rise to a different explanation...

...Further, it is generally recognized that the public and private religious practices of most Seminary professors are Orthodox, and that the beliefs and attitudes of the faculty (particularly the senior faculty) are far more tradition-bound than those of their former students...

...It is the spirit of Cordoba which I choose...

...Chancellor Gerson D. Cohen of the JTS was named Chairman of the Commission, which included seven laymen and seven rabbis...

...Although some members of the Rabbinical Assembly (the international body of the Conservative rabbis) are not graduates of the JTS, most are, and training at the JTS is the only routine means of entering the Conservative rabbinate...

...It has reached out with respect to those who find established usage viable, and at the same time has indicated that new usage, provided it is halachically grounded, is equally legitimate...

...But the real, if hidden, issue concerns sex role definitions—the desirability of permitting Conservative Jewish women to assume leadership roles in the religious community...

...In an eloquent and scholarly address, the Chancellor declared himself a "passionate advocate of ordination of women" and went on to discuss the halachic-theological, moral, sociological, and institutional aspects of the issue...

...that a lecture bureau be organized to bring the scholarship of the faculty and the needs of Conservative Jewry into closer contact...

...This is because ordination of rabbis, at least in the manner in which it is done at JTS, is simply not an issue in the classical halachic literature...

...Constructive critics urge that innovative programs and materials concerning the Jewish holidays, the Sabbath, Jewish death and mourning practices, and Kashrut be produced...

...Mark Rotenberg, a third year law student at Columbia University, is editor of the Columbia Law Review...

...Its people created new vehicles which eschewed uniformity, but united Jewry in spirit and practice...

...Cordoba found a different response...

...The Jews of Cordoba chose to respond to new challenges not only in terms of old forms, but in terms of developing innovative and exegeti-cally acceptable forms...

...that the issue of women rabbis is so vexing...

...Such an intellectual result provides the foundation for a third key feature of the movement: a practical program for Jewish life, one which attempts to conserve and promote the historic values and traditions of the Jewish people in the context of rapidly changing conditions...

...Unfortunately, more than four hundred rabbis who attended the Rabbinical Assembly convention were unwilling to pressure the JTS by adopting a strongly worded endorsement of the Commission report, and instead passed a weak, noncommittal resolution saying that the RA would take no action either on the Commission recommendation or even upon admitting women into its own ranks (something it could do regardless of any JTS ban on women) until the faculty of the JTS had made up its mind...

...The debate, in all likelihood, will center on halachic issues...

...Sometime within the next few months, in any case, the tenured faculty and the administrative officers of the Seminary must reach a decision...

...It is they who will decide the issue, free of formal pressure from the pulpit rabbinate...

...It might be thought that a decision in a socio-religious matter such as this would best be made by the joint rabbinic-lay commission which heard testimony from hundreds of concerned individuals on all aspects of the problem and brought a variety of social, ethical, and religious perspectives into its deliberations...

...For on the Seminary decision depends not only Conservative Judaism's formal, response to women, in itself no small matter...

...Even within the narrower confines of ritual observance, the Seminary functions more as a hot-house for old ideas than as a seed-bed for new ones...

...A preliminary procedural vote gives some reason to hope for a pro-women's ordination decision...

...This policy, which sounds so thoroughly sensible, can also be— and is often—viewed as a pragmatic and unprincipled compromise between Orthodoxy and Reform...

...For those of us who agree with Chancellor Cohen, who believe with him that what hangs in the balance is Conservative Judaism's readiness to "respond to modernity, to resist fossilization," there could scarcely be a more important issue...

...Cordoba opened the gates to new talent...

...Years ago, the movement's success was frequently attributed to its advantageous position as a socio-religious bridge between an immigrant Orthodox and an indigenously American Reform religion...

...After analyzing various halachic issues related to the ordination question it concluded that "there is no cogent argument on halachic grounds for denying a sincere, committed woman the opportunity to study for and achieve the office of rabbi...

...The issue is not whether Conservative synagogues should accept women as rabbis, since each synagogue retains exclusive control over which rabbis it hires...

...This procedure, however, was evidently seen as inconsistent with established traditions, which vest the rabbinate with exclusive authority over decisions concerning Jewish law and norms...

...But this "think-tank" model for JTS leadership, in which fresh ideas are incubated and widely disseminated, is not likely to become a reality in the near future...

...The issue, in short, is one of social policy, not of halachah...

...I believe it is this spirit which the Commission has chosen...

...Its dominance is shown in numerous surveys, as well as by the sheer numbers of its affiliated synagogues and their members, the influence and prestige of its rabbinate, and its wealth...

...The Conservative movement is generally recognized as the leading religious force in American Jewish life...

...On the one hand, the performance of public synagogue rituals, and especially the leading of such rituals, by women strikes many people as a radical break with tradition, a violation of halachah and a concession to a secular women's liberation movement which will undermine basic Jewish values...

...Drawing upon his own original work in medieval Jewish history, the Chancellor stated: Ultimately, the choice I made was between the spirit of Baghdad and the spirit of Cordoba...

...Since it began training rabbis in 1886, the JTS rabbinical school has restricted its enrollment to men, though women are permitted to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in its other programs and may take courses taught primarily to men in the rabbinical school...

...On the other hand, denying women the opportunity to develop and utilize their talents in whichever way they choose strikes most Americans, including most Conservative Jews, as unfair, even immoral...

...Most of the permanent faculty have never served as congregational rabbis or ministered to the needs of Conservative Jews...

...For the Orthodox, of course, these questions are settled...