Our Readers Speak: Women as Rabbis

...Many questions are involved in the debate over women's ordination...

...But the view which Conservative Judaism takes of women can hardly be thought trivial, and the view which Conservative Judaism takes of itself as an embracing movement can hardly be thought trivial...

...Despite its sometime excesses, the emergence of the women's movement and the impact it has made on the public—male and female—consciousness are, quite likely, the most profoundly significant social achievements of American society in recent times...

...But I feel this is a straw issue...

...In favor: A 70-year-old female, Conservative: Whatever the historical reasons for placing half the human race in a subservient position (and could it have been as simple as the biology of reproduction enforcing destiny...

...And once all the explaining is done, then Jews will have to decide for themselves whether they prefer to go with the halakha, as enunciated by the Seminary faculty, or to go with their own understandings of decency and good sense...

...But to deny her this opportunity simply because of her sex is inexcusable, ignorant, and quite painful to witness...

...Institutions come, institutions go...

...But there are, at the same time, two things that the Conservative movement is not entitled to do...

...Indeed they do...

...You can't have it both ways...

...Why should women be prohibited from doing professionally what they are expected to do naturally...

...The fact that Rabbi David Weiss Halivni opened the door to the future by suggesting that "if all women were voluntarily to take upon themselves the obligations of time-bound mitzvot for a full generation, then perhaps the issue of women's ordination could be approached halakhically" indicates an ambivalence which realistically has been present in Jewish law for more than 2500 years...

...Not any more\ It's the cowardice—not being willing to take a definite stand—so characteristic of the complexes of Conservatism...

...Incidental information: About 30 percent of our respondents were Reform, another 30 percent Conservative, another 30 percent "Other," and about 10 percent Orthodox...

...Who decides which laws have constitutional status, and which are merely statutory regulations, and what is the process of decision-making...

...As to age, the contrast between respondents over 65 and those under 35 is quite dramatic: 41 percent of the older group are at 10, compared to 76 percent of the younger group...

...However, if we consider a congregation as one large family, I believe the head of that family should be a man—a strong father image...

...A 22-year-old female, Conservative: I believe the ordination of women will happen when the Seminary faculty is in tune with their people...

...On the women's issue, the Commission and the Seminary Chancellor displayed such readiness...

...Sixty-six percent of our respondents rated themselves at 10—that is, as very much in favor of ordination, while six percent rated themselves at 0. That leaves 28 percent: four percent professed neutrality, six percent scored themselves between one and four— that is, somewhat opposed—and 18 percent were favorably disposed to ordination...

...It will take the Orthodox a bit longer to concede, but with God's help, they will...

...We asked people to tell us their position on the question of women's ordination, and offered them the chance to place themselves anywhere on a scale from 10 (very much in favor of ordaining women) to 0 (very much opposed...

...A 29-year-old male, Orthodox: If one does not care about Halakha, then it wouldn't matter if a cham-panzee were ordained...

...A 36-year-old female, Reconstruc-tionist: A major reason we belong to a Reform congregation is because of the acknowledgement of human equality in Reform Judaism...

...Yet in the religious sphere we are told to keep our place...

...should it have a strangle hold on people's thinking as well...

...Ten years later I came into contact with Laura Geiler and was so moved and thrilled by the idea of a woman rabbi that I have slowly and steadily found my way back into Judaism...

...The controversy was extensively discussed in moment of May 1979, and again, more briefly, in moment of March 1980—at which time we also asked our readers to share their reactions with us...

...In overwhelming number, those moment readers who responded to our poll appear to share the views expressed above...

...There were seven other candidates, all male, when she was chosen on the basis of ability and not sex...

...The first is plain: The Conservative movement is not entitled to assume that it is a permanent fixture of American Jewish life...

...A 66-year-old male, Traditionalist: Judaism is an evolving religion...

...The Orthodox and liberal communities are split enough without this...

...But 56 percent are at 0, and another six percent elsewhere on the scale of opposition...

...Twelve percent of the males and eight percent of the females disapprove of female ordination...

...Predictably, Orthodox respondents, of whom there were many less, take a different view: 19 percent are at 10, another 12 percent are in less intense agreement...

...The 35-64 group scores about half way bewteen its seniors and juniors...

...And I'm ready to leave the movement over this issue...

...however, what Jews do, and how they think, and how they feel, are not irrelevant, surely not to a genuine movement...

...As vast as its contributions to American Jewish life have been, Conservative Judaism does not have a permanent mandate, an inherent claim on the attention and loyalty of Jews...

...Conservative Judaism has certainly ceased to be an option for me and my family...

...I am, however, inordinately opposed to the entire concept of women rabbis...

...The tri-partite division of American Judaism (pace, Reconstructionists) was not ordained at Sinai, or anywhere...

...This is true because the woman is at home with the child and influences his learning...

...Conservative Judaism prides itself on its readiness to grapple with the terribly difficult task of threading a persuasive path between tradition and change, of interpreting the Law in the light not only of historic precedent but also of contemporary wisdom...

...How does the Conservative leadership decide when to abandon Halakha in certain areas, but rely on discrete passages in the texts when confronting other issues...

...It concerns men and women and the future of Judaism...

...She is not obligated to daven in a shul, her husband, son and father are...

...Overall, the older group is 68 percent in favor and 20 percent opposed, while the younger group is 93 percent in favor and six percent opposed...

...I have, in the past, considered joining the Conservative movement...

...A demanding career is not what our women need...

...Without ordination a woman can be a teacher, leader, judge...

...I am humble in the face of the problems it raises: the process of the movement for resolving the conflict implicit in a dual commitment to tradition and law, the significance of social change and the changing status of women...

...A 19-year-old female, Conservative: Women have other obligations, according to Torah: none obligate her to be a rabbi...

...Still, their views and their comments are not without value: Here is what some 600 thoughtful and concerned American Jews have to say...

...A 58-year-old female, Conservative: I feel strongly that women have an inner spirituality and sehsitivity that is special...

...A 60-year-old male, Orthodox: I am a graduate of the Teachers Institute of JTS and my career was in Jewish education...

...What a pity...

...Who decides when conditions have changed sufficiently to require an amendment to the laws...

...No women in the rabbinate...

...And they are only at the beginning...

...Above all, there is Jewish law—the halakha...

...From the perspective of its theological leaders and organizational spokesmen, Conservative Judaism cannot merely reflect the opinions and sentiments of Conservative Jews...

...From the standpoint of laypeople—unless, of course, the movement is prepared to undertake a massive educational program to change that view—Conservative Judaism has simply copped out on one of the most important moral questions of our time...

...And Conservatism insists on seeking to embrace catholic Israel, on being more than a disembodied doctrine, on being a movement and not merely a doctrine...

...It is plain that the women's controversy, important as it is in its own terms, is also a symptom of a more general dilemma...

...It is time for the leadership to recognize changed American realities and to abandon its rigid adherence to precedent for precedent's own sake...

...The movement is its own master, and it is entitled to decide each of the issues that comes before it in its own fashion...

...surely the time has come when the other half of the human race can free itself from the "master" concept...

...A 48-year-old female, Conservative: In my opinion women are as good, if not better, teachers than men...

...Solomon Schechter was invited to this country to develop a uniquely American brand of Judaism—a Judaism less rigid than Orthodoxy, but more traditional than Reform...

...Again, yes...

...the Rabbinical Assembly, by refusing to pass on the matter one way or the other, and the Seminary faculty, by agreeing to table the matter, ducked the question...

...The Seminary may be a lighthouse, but a lighthouse needs ships...

...Overall, then, 84 percent of our respondents expressed themselves as favorable to the ordination of women...

...A 65-year-old female, Conservative: Not every women is qualified nor does each one want to serve as a religious leader...

...Seven percent of Conservative respondents are at 0; no Reform respondents are there...

...A 31 -year-old male, Conservative: The issue is of great importance to the future vitality of Judaism...

...So I have questions, serious questions, and yet, at bottom, a strong intuitive commitment to the necessity for change...

...We may always ask questions and change with the times, provided we remain within the Jewish community...

...By and large, however, the differences between the sexes declines with the age of the respondents...

...A woman has responsibilities to prepare a Jewish home for her husband and children...

...I feel hurt, angry, that a body of men can so define my life...

...Because the Protestants have women in their priesthood doesn't mean we have to...

...Judaism, in this view, is not simply anything Jews choose to do...

...There are many women like me who are finding their way into being observant Jews, but who will not tolerate second class treatment...

...Overall, 56 percent of male respondents were at 10, compared to 73 percent of female respondents...

...A summary of those reactions appears below, and is followed by an article which examines more closely some of the current confusions of Conservative Judaism...

...And now, a word from our readers: Opposed to women's ordination: A 32-year-old male, Conservative: I have grown up in the Havurah movement and my opposition to ordination of women may seem paradoxical...

...It is, of course, presumptuous for outsiders to the Conservative movement to assert that this or that must be its way, its decision...

...If she is conducting Shabbat services as a rabbi, she will not be able to prepare the home for Shabbat, and teach her children a Jewish way of life...

...Ordaining women will simply further blur the distinctions present in Jewish Law...

...A 50-year-old female, Conservative: As a tradition-oriented Jewish woman and a family counselor, I am alarmed at what has happened to our Jewish families today...

...If, as some scholars have maintained, the halakha plainly forbids the ordination of women, the Conservative movement will have to do a better job of explaining to its members why the halakha is mutable in some cases and immutable in others, and what it means to say that the movement is open to change when, on an issue of such major interest and import, it resists change...

...A 64-year-old male, Orthodox: My upbringing doesn't let me be free of the idea that a man is a rabbi in the most simplistic sense of the word...

...Had the question been trivial, the matter would soon be forgotten...

...Male (no age given), Reform: I went to school at HUC and some of the best students they accepted were women...

...Perhaps they have saved Conservative Judaism, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they have deeply offended and alienated large numbers of Conservative Jews...

...A 30-year-old female, Reform and Reconstructionist: After being confirmed in a Reform congregation at 15,1 pretty much severed my ties to Judaism, mostly because I found it dead and meaningless, particularly as a woman...

...A 22-year-old female, secular Zionist: I am fortunate to have been raised in a family where Judaism is experienced as a structure from which problems can be confronted and solved...

...Halakha is not more static than Anglo-Saxon law or the American Constitution...

...Doctrines have validity in and of themselves, but what Solomon Schechter and those who have followed in his steps had in mind was surely not an exercise in theoretical theology...

...This is not only a "woman's issue...

...Those who are pleased with the result may think they have preserved their doctrinal purity, preserved the dignity of Conservative Judaism...

...Young women have been "sold a bill of goods" by the strident feminists among us...

...Flexibility, innovation and adaptability to American realities were essential to Schechter's task and crucial to the growth of the Conservative movement...

...Do the results differ by denomination...

...Whose perception...

...By "change," do we mean only change in "objective" circumstance, or do we also mean change in the perception of things...

...It is the disregard of Jewish law among the majority of Conservative Jews...

...That is, when the products of the Conservative movement are our faculty members...

...Today, when the human being has need for faith, hope and inner peace, the synagogue and religion must respond...

...Our category of "other," which includes many Reconstructionists, many who describe themselves as "havurah" Jews, and many who reject denomi-nationalism, comes close to the Reform scores: 74 percent are at 10, and 13 percent between six "and nine...

...A movement that presents itself as standing for something, not merely as a sloppy compromise between one excess and another, creates legitimate expectations among its members...

...There is much confusion of roles for men and women and this is hurting all families...

...A 48-year-old female, Conservative: Why do we have to emulate the gentiles...

...The day will come when the majority of the Conservative Jewish leaders will favor women rabbis but until then I'm satisfied with the status quo...

...There are rules, there are norms, there are standards...

...Tradition has a strong hold on people's actions...

...20 percent of the older group are opposed to ordination, compared to six percent of the younger group...

...No identification: As a law student, I spend many hours each day questioning whether judicial decisions are principled and well-reasoned...

...Thus, on an issue of special consequence to the Conservative movement, we find that almost three out of five Conservative Jews feel very strongly that women should be permitted ordination, and that another one out of five shares that disposition, albeit less intensely...

...It has been a convenient expression of American Jewish diversity, and it will last as long as it remains convenient...

...Seventy-nine percent of our Reform respondents are at 10, and 16 percent more between six and nine, for a total of 95 percent approval of ordination...

...Judaism may not be simply what Jews do...

...They also have homosexuals...

...16 percent of males and 17 percent of females were disposed to agree...

...I am not arguing against women in careers, just not as rabbis...

...Actually, the laws of organizational inertia being what they are, it will likely last for quite a while beyond that...

...Who is entitled to interpret the laws Conservative Judaism deems sacred...

...After years of debate, that is the result of last December's non-decision by the JTS faculty...

...A 38-year-old male, Conservative: The real crisis of Conservative Judaism is not about the question of women rabbis...

...It needs, of course, to be stated, and emphatically, that moment's readers hardly constitute a representative sample of American Jews, and those of our readers who responded to our poll are still less representative...

...Let's encourage our young women to take pride in raising families and working before children and after they are grown...

...Being a rabbi is a full-time career and a fulfilling one for a man with a family...

...With women rabbis this Halakha will be violated...

...Why must we dilute further our beautiful Jewish faith...

...A 41-year-old female, Reform: I'm a committed Jew who has not always been satisfied with the practice of Judaism in the Reform movement...

...Overall, the women outshone the men...

...A 65-year-old female, Reform: We have a woman rabbi at our temple...

...It seems to me that the Conservative movement suffers from discretionary, unprincipled and selective law-making...

...Is this an issue on which the sexes are divided...

...A 24-year-old female, Conservative: In all spheres of our lives we are allowed, and encouraged, to expand our boundaries, to push our capabilities...

...But it is inevitably the Jews who must decide whether to listen, whether the halakha as interpreted speaks to them...

...Witness Hillel's gezeroth, Rabban Gershon's pronouncement on polygamy, and the voluminous Responsa of modern times, where reinterpretation of Rabbinic Law is a never-ending process...

...Perhaps—and only perhaps— it is the scholars who must decide what the halakha says...

...I have no doubt that the ordination of women will take place in the Conservative movement within the next quarter of a century...

...three percent are neutral, and the balance of eight percent are opposed...

...But Conservatism differs from Orthodoxy in its view that halakha is open to change, that the development of halakha was not closed at some Fixed point in time...

...they imagined a doctrine that would be thought compelling by masses of adherents...

...More participation of women in Jewish religious life—yes—but not as "rabbi...

...Conservative Judaism needs the skills and abilities of its women in order to survive...

...Halakha says that whatever the religion of the mother, the religion of the child...

...We miss the ritual beauty but freedom is worth more...

...The second thing the Conservative movement is not entitled to assume is that the women's issue is a fad, a hangover from the activism of the 1960s...

...I hope that the traditional male orientation in Judaism changes before we turn the brightest, most creative, dynamic and committed Jewish women away from the community of the Jewish people...

...Among Conservative respondents, there are 57 percent at 10 and 22 percent more on the favorable side, for a total of 79 percent...

...But it is hard to see-how even they can take much satisfaction from the prospect of a Conservative Judaism that is only doctrine...