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{{Short description|none}}{{Cleanup|reason=Israel section needs cleanup. Formatting is essentially a bullet list of various events relating to the general topic of women in Israel, not necessarily the women’s rights movement in Israel|date=June 2020}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}{{Jewish feminism}}{{Feminism sidebar |Variants (religious)}}{{Jews and Judaism sidebar |Politics}}Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.In its modern form, the Jewish feminist movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith Plaskow, the main grievances of early Jewish feminists were women’s exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan, women’s exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot (mitzvot meaning the 613 commandments given in the Torah at Mount Sinai and the seven rabbinic commandments instituted later, for a total of 620), and women’s inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce in Jewish religious courts.Plaskow, Judith. “Jewish Feminist Thought” in Frank, Daniel H. & Leaman, Oliver. History of Jewish Philosophy, Routledge, first published 1997; this edition 2003.According to historian Paula Hyman, two articles published in the 1970s were trailblazers in analyzing the status of Jewish women using feminism: “The Unfreedom of Jewish Women”, published in 1970 in the Jewish Spectator by its editor, Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, and an article by Rachel Adler, then an Orthodox Jew and currently a professor at the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, called “ The Jew Who Wasn’t There: Halacha and the Jewish Woman”, published in 1971 in Davka.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hyman-paula-e, Paula E. Hyman | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 2017-06-26, WEB, Dr. Paula Hyman,www.myjewishlearning.com/article/american-jewish-feminism-beginnings/, American Jewish Feminism: Beginnings, My Jewish Learning, 2014-01-31, 2017-06-26, WEB,velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2013/01/reprint-interview-with-rachel-adler-in-anticipation-of-ohalah.html, Velveteen Rabbi: Reprint: Interview with Rachel Adler (in anticipation of OHALAH), Velveteenrabbi.blogs.com, 2013-01-10, 2017-06-26, WEB,www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-state-of-reform-judaism-today, The State of Reform Judaism Today, Jewishvirtuallibrary.org, 2017-06-26, BOOK, Nelly Las, Jewish Voices in Feminism: Transnational Perspectives,books.google.com/books?id=sa0oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85, 2015, U of Nebraska Press, 978-0-8032-7704-5, 85–, WEB,jwa.org/sites/jwa.org/files/mediaobjects/the_jew_who_wasnt_there_adler.jpg, THE JEW WHO WASN’T THERE: Halacha and the Jewish Woman, Jewish Women’s Archive, WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/adler-rachel, Rachel Adler | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 2017-06-26, Also, in 1973, the first [American] National Jewish Women’s Conference was held, in New York City; Blu Greenberg gave its opening address.BOOK, Joyce Antler, The Journey Home: Jewish Women and the American Century,books.google.com/books?id=ra-Setymi6cC&pg=PA292, 1997, Simon and Schuster, 978-0-684-83444-3, 292–,

Jewish feminist theology

Various versions of feminist theology exist within the Jewish community.Some of these theologies promote the idea that it is important to have a feminine characterization of God, and/or more feminist language in general, within the siddur (Jewish prayerbook) and service.In 1946, the new Silverman siddur of Conservative Judaism changed the traditional words of thanking God for “not making me a woman”, instead using words thanking God for “making me a free person”.WEB, Newman, Debra,www.stljewishlight.com/opinion/commentaries/article_c8986454-85df-11e8-b2ce-bb83d5ec9e06.html, Conservative movement is closing its gender gap, but there is still work to be done - St. Louis Jewish Light: Commentaries - Conservative movement is closing its gender gap, but there is still work to be done: Commentaries, Stljewishlight.com, 2018-07-12, 12 July 2018,www.stljewishlight.com/opinion/commentaries/article_c8986454-85df-11e8-b2ce-bb83d5ec9e06.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20180712181359www.stljewishlight.com/opinion/commentaries/article_c8986454-85df-11e8-b2ce-bb83d5ec9e06.html,">web.archive.org/web/20180712181359www.stljewishlight.com/opinion/commentaries/article_c8986454-85df-11e8-b2ce-bb83d5ec9e06.html, dead, In 1976, Rita Gross published the article “Female God Language in a Jewish Context” (Davka Magazine 17), which Jewish scholar and feminist Judith Plaskow considers “probably the first article to deal theoretically with the issue of female God-language in a Jewish context”.WEB,www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Issues/Gender_and_Feminism/Feminist_Thought/Theology.shtml, Jewish Feminist Theology: A Survey, My Jewish Learning, 2012-07-17, WEB,www.dhushara.com/book/torah/cardoza/ssin.htm, Standing at Sinai, Dhushara.com, 2012-07-17, Gross was Jewish herself at this time.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=SJs-aLqCiF8C&q=rita+gross+jew&pg=PA200, Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah: New Insights and Scholarship - Frederick Greenspahn - Google Books, November 2011, 2012-07-17, 9780814733363, Greenspahn, Frederick E., NYU Press, Reconstructionist Rabbi Rebecca Alpert (Reform Judaism, Winter 1991) comments:{{blockquote|The experience of praying with Siddur Nashim [the first Jewish prayer book to refer to God using female pronouns and imagery, published by Margaret Wenig and Naomi Janowitz in 1976BOOK, Shannon Weber, Feminism in Minutes,books.google.com/books?id=buJ6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA286, 4 June 2019, Quercus, 978-1-63506-142-0, 286–, ] ... transformed my relationship with God. For the first time, I understood what it meant to be made in God’s image. To think of God as a woman like myself, to see Her as both powerful and nurturing, to see Her imaged with a woman’s body, with womb, with breasts – this was an experience of ultimate significance. Was this the relationship that men have had with God for all these millennia? How wonderful to gain access to those feelings and perceptions.}}In 1990 Rabbi Margaret Wenig wrote the sermon, “God Is a Woman and She Is Growing Older”, which as of 2011 has been published ten times (three times in German) and preached by rabbis from Australia to California.WEB,huc.edu/faculty/faculty/MargaretWenig.shtml, StackPath, huc.edu,huc.edu/faculty/faculty/MargaretWenig.shtml," title="web.archive.org/web/20130623080230huc.edu/faculty/faculty/MargaretWenig.shtml,">web.archive.org/web/20130623080230huc.edu/faculty/faculty/MargaretWenig.shtml, 23 June 2013, Rabbi Paula Reimers (“Feminism, Judaism, and God the Mother”, Conservative Judaism 46 (1993)) comments:{{blockquote|Those who want to use God/She language want to affirm womanhood and the feminine aspect of the deity. They do this by emphasizing that which most clearly distinguishes the female experience from the male. A male or female deity can create through speech or through action, but the metaphor for creation which is uniquely feminine is birth. Once God is called female, then, the metaphor of birth and the identification of the deity with nature and its processes become inevitable}}Ahuva Zaches affirms that using both masculine and feminine language for God can be a positive thing, but reminds her Reform Jewish readership that God is beyond gender (Is God male, female, both or neither? How should we phrase our prayers in response to God’s gender?, in the Union for Reform Judaism’s iTorah, urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=11422" title="https:/-/archive.today/20120715190459urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=11422">weblink):{{blockquote|Feminine imagery of God does not in any way threaten Judaism. On the contrary, it enhances the Jewish understanding of God, which should not be limited to masculine metaphors. All language that humans use to describe God is only a metaphor. Using masculine and feminine metaphors for God is one way to remind ourselves that gendered descriptions of God are just metaphors. God is beyond gender.}}These views are highly controversial even within liberal Jewish movements.“This genderless God also represents a profound betrayal of the Torah narrative.” Matthew Berke, “God and Gender in Judaism”, in Copyright (c) 1996 First Things 64 (June/July 1996): 33–38 Orthodox Jews and many Conservative Jewshold that it is wrong to use English female pronouns for God, viewing such usage as an intrusion of modern feminist ideology into Jewish tradition.WEB, Mirsky, Yehudah, Feminine Images of God,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feminine-images-of-god, jwa.org, 30 March 2017, en, Liberal prayerbooks tend increasingly to also avoid male-specific words and pronouns, seeking that all references to God in translations be made in gender-neutral language. For example, the UK Liberal movement’s Siddur Lev Chadash (1995) does so, as does the UK Reform Movement’s Forms of Prayer (2008).WEB,thejc.com/articles/the-slimline-siddur-a-touch-bob-dylan, The slimline siddur with a touch of Bob Dylan, Siddur Lev Chadash {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705015023www.bwpjc.org/slc.htm |date= 5 July 2008 }} In Mishkan T’filah, the American Reform Jewish prayer book released in 2007, references to God as “He” have been removed, and whenever Jewish patriarchs are named (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), so also are the matriarchs (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah).NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/us/03prayerbook.html?_r=1, The New York Times, Laurie, Goodstein, In New Prayer Book, Signs of Broad Change, 3 September 2007, In 2015 the Reform Jewish High Holy Days prayer book Mishkan HaNefesh was released; it is intended as a companion to Mishkan T’filah.NEWS,www.jweekly.com/article/full/74278/gates-of-repentance-replacement-advances-reform-trends/, ‘Gates of Repentance’ replacement advances Reform trends | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California, J, Jweekly.com, 2015-03-26, 2015-04-14, It includes a version of the High Holy Days prayer Avinu Malkeinu that refers to God as both “Loving Father” and “Compassionate Mother”. Other notable changes are replacing a line from the Reform movement’s earlier prayerbook, “Gates of Repentance”, that mentioned the joy of a bride and groom specifically, with the line “rejoicing with couples under the chuppah [wedding canopy]”, and adding a third, non-gendered option to the way worshippers are called to the Torah, offering “mibeit”, Hebrew for “from the house of”, in addition to the traditional “son of” or “daughter of”.In 2003 The Female Face of God in Auschwitz: A Jewish Feminist Theology of the Holocaust, the first full-length feminist theology of the Holocaust, written by Melissa Raphael, was published.BOOK, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz: A Jewish Feminist Theology of the Holocaust (Religion and Gender): Melissa Raphael: 9780415236652: Amazon.com: Books, 0415236657, Raphael, Melissa, 2003, Psychology Press, Judith Plaskow’s Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (1991), and Rachel Adler’s Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics (1999) are the only two full-length Jewish feminist works to focus entirely on theology in general (rather than specific aspects such as Holocaust theology).WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feminist-theology, Feminist Theology, Thus, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (1991) is the first book of Jewish feminist theology ever written.There is a growing subfield in the study of gender and Judaism, which sees the binaries of male and female as crucial constructs in Jewish thought.Kosman, Miriam, Circle, Arrow, Spiral, Exploring Gender in Judaism, Menucha Publishers, 2014. ^Steven F. Friedell, “The ‘Different Voice’ in Jewish Law: Some Parallels to a Feminist Jurisprudence,” Indiana Law Journal, October 1992Neusner, Jacob, ‘Androgynous Judaism: Masculine and Feminine in the Dual Torah,’ Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1993. ^While the male/female dialectic first makes its appearance in the story of creation, the Talmud insists that the idea of male and female extends way beyond sex roles: “Everything that God created, He created as male and female....“(Baba Batra 74b)This dialectic takes on even greater theological significance in light of the Biblical book, Song of Songs, which has been traditionally interpreted as a metaphor for the relationship between God and the Nation of Israel, where the Nation of Israel is cast as feminine towards God, who is represented in the story by the male lover.Other examples of topics in which the male/female dynamic is used metaphorically include: the relationship between Shabbat and the days of the week[8], the relationship between the Oral and Written Law, the relationship between This World and the Next, the interplay between the legal and extra-legal aspects of Talmud (Halacha and Aggada)[9], and the Jewish calendar, which makes use of both the sun (traditionally symbolic of the male force) and the moon (traditionally symbolic of the female force).Heshelis, Devorah, The Moon’s Lost Light, Targum Press, 2004Gender polarity is robustly maintained in both the Bible and in the Oral Law, (Deuteronomy, 22:5, even forbids cross-dressing) and upholding this polarity is seen as critical in achieving synthesis between the masculine and feminine.This exploration of gender-constructs in primary sources reveals surprising valuation of the feminine prototype in Kabbala-based sources which invites inquiry into the social, ethical, ecological, moral and philosophical ramifications of a feminine perspective within Jewish thought. Rinder Sarah, “A New, Sophisticated, Haredi View on Gender” The Forward, 24 November 2015

Orthodox Judaism

The position on feminism within the Orthodox denomination of Judaism is broadly divided along the factional lines of the modern Orthodox and Haredi communities, with the modern Orthodox favourable to certain advances for women, provided they are maintained within the framework of Jewish law (halakha). Haredi Judaism maintains a stricter stance on issues pertaining to feminism.

Modern Orthodox approaches

Orthodox feminism works within the halakhic system and works with rabbis and rabbinical institutions to create more inclusive practices within Orthodox communal life and leadership. Orthodox feminism tends to focus on issues, such as the problems of agunah, fostering women’s education, leadership, and ritual participation, women’s leadership and making synagogue more women-friendly. Unlike other denominations, Orthodox feminists retain the partition in synagogue and do not count women in a minyan. The all-women’s prayer group—Women’s Tefilla Group, is an Orthodox practice that began in the 1970s and continues today.WEB, JOFA, JOFA [Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance],www.jofa.org, Educational opportunities have drastically increased for Orthodox women since the late twentieth century. It was common for only boys and men to study the Talmud and Jewish law but this has now been extended and is standard for girls. The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education was the first institution that gave women access to Talmudic study on an advanced level and gave training in halakha that was only previously accessible to men. In today’s time, several institutions have joined Drisha and now offer women the opportunity to learn. Orthodox Jewish women now also have access to leadership roles as clergy and advisors on Jewish law. New educational programs have enabled Modern Orthodox women to study Talmud and other rabbinic literature, at levels intended to be comparable to a yeshivah or kollel for men, including Drisha Institute (founded in 1979), Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and Matan Women’s Institute for Torah Studies.BOOK, Women and the Study of Torah, 9780881256901, xiv, Wolowelsky, Joel B., 2001, KTAV Publishing House, Blu Greenberg has a large impact on orthodox women’s view of feminism. She encouraged women to take on new leadership roles while still abiding by the Jewish law in her book “On Women and Judaism” which was published in 1981. Greenberg was named the “foremother” of Orthodox Jewish feminism. In 1997, Blu Greenberg founded the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) to advocate for women’s increased participation and leadership in Modern Orthodox Jewish life and to create a community for women and men dedicated to such change.Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. Jofa.org (14 April 2011). Retrieved on 18 October 2011. JOFA has focused on issues including agunah, bat mitzvah, women’s scholarship, women’s prayer, ritual, women’s synagogue leadership, and women’s religious leadership. The organization has a mission statement of “advocates for expanding women’s rights and opportunities within the framework of halakha, to build a vibrant and equitable orthodox community.” They seek to be a resource and uplifting to the women in their community while simultaneously encouraging them to follow the ways of orthodox life. JOFA has been able to make multiple important changes and the organization is continuing its efforts to expand and push the barriers of the Orthodox community.Also in 1997, Gail Billig became the first female president of a major Orthodox synagogue, at Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, New Jersey.Klein, Abigail. (13 July 2007) Leaders Lift Spirit in Orthodox Women’s Section. Women’s eNews. Retrieved on 18 October 2011.In 2002, the first partnership minyans were established—Shira Hadasha in Jerusalem, and Darkhei Noam in New York City. These are Orthodox communities that maximize women’s participation in the prayer to the full extent possible within halakha. Although critics of partnership minyan argue that these are not “Orthodox”, the communities themselves vehemently insist that they are Orthodox. The fact that the synagogues have partitions and do not count women as part of the minyan (and thus do not allow women to lead any parts of services that require a quorum) demonstrates the loyalty to Orthodox practice. Dr. Elana Sztokman, former executive director of JOFA, wrote extensively about this phenomenon in her book The Men’s Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an Egalitarian World and examined this dynamic in which the partnership minyan considers itself Orthodox but is often rejected as Orthodox by other members of the community. Today there are over 35 partnership minyans around the world.BOOK, Sztokman, Elana, The Men’s Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an Egalitarian World, 2011, Brandeis University Press, Another major historical event of Orthodox feminism occurred in 2009 when Rabba Sara Hurwitz became the first publicly ordained Orthodox woman rabbi. Avi Weiss then launched a training school for Orthodox women in rabbinic positions, Yeshivat Maharat (acronym for “Morah hilkhatit rabbanit toranit“—a rabbinic, halakhic Torah teacher.) Rabbi Weiss had originally announced that graduates would be called “rabba”, but when the Rabbinical Council of America threatened to oust him, he recanted and created the term maharat.NEWS, Sara Hurwitz Adopts the Title of Maharat,jwa.org/thisweek/jan/27/2010/sara-hurwitz, Jewish Women’s Archives, 27 January 2010, The first cohort of maharats graduated in June 2013: Maharats Ruth Balinsky-Friedman, Rachel Kohl Finegold and Abby Brown Scheier.NEWS, Reimer-Torn, Susan, Maharats March into Jewish World First-ever ordination at Orthodox women’s seminary seen as ‘sea change,’ but steep hurdles persist.,www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/maharats-march-jewish-world, 26 February 2014, The Jewish Week, 2013-06-19, dead,www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/maharats-march-jewish-world," title="web.archive.org/web/20130624092654www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/maharats-march-jewish-world,">web.archive.org/web/20130624092654www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/maharats-march-jewish-world, 24 June 2013, dmy-all, In 2015 Yaffa Epstein was ordained as Rabba by the Yeshivat Maharat.WEB,www.yeshivatmaharat.org/class-of-2015/, Class of 2015, Yeshivat Maharat, 5 January 2016,www.yeshivatmaharat.org/class-of-2015/," title="web.archive.org/web/20151205231641www.yeshivatmaharat.org/class-of-2015/,">web.archive.org/web/20151205231641www.yeshivatmaharat.org/class-of-2015/, 5 December 2015, dead, Also that year Lila Kagedan was ordained as Rabbi by the Yeshivat Maharat, making her their first graduate to take the title Rabbi.WEB,www.cjnews.com/living-jewish/jewish-learning/why-orthodox-judaism-needs-female-rabbis, Why Orthodox Judaism needs female rabbis, Rabbi Lila Kagedan, 25 November 2015, The Canadian Jewish News, In January 2013 Tamar Frankiel became the president of the Academy for Jewish Religion in California, making her the first Orthodox woman to lead an American rabbinical school.Dr. Tamar Frankiel | Academy for Jewish Religion, California {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111228055346ajrca.org/faculty/dr-tamar-frankiel/ |date=28 December 2011 }}WEB,www.jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/article/orthodox_woman_a_first, Orthodox woman, a first - Los Angeles, Jewish Journal, 16 January 2013, The school itself is transdenominational, not Orthodox.In 2013 the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a halachic ruling which allows women, for the first time, to say the Kaddish prayer in memory of their deceased parents.Also in 2013, the first class of female halachic advisers trained to practice in the US graduated; they graduated from the North American branch of Nishmat’s yoetzet halacha program in a ceremony at Congregation Sheartith Israel, Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Manhattan.WEB,www.timesofisrael.com/landmark-us-program-graduates-first-female-halachic-advisers/, Landmark US program graduates first female halachic advisers, The Times of Israel, However, this event was met with only faint enthusiasm among Orthodox feminists for several reasons. One is that Nishmat consistently distances itself from feminism, as its founder Chana Henkin often pronounces that she is not a feminist and that the women who graduate from Nishmat do not adjudicate halakha but always ask male rabbis. Another reason is that against the backdrop of the graduation of women from Yeshivat Maharat, in which women are full leaders with complete authority to adjudicate and function as communal rabbis this event does not necessarily represent the greatest advancement for Orthodox women and is arguably a step backward. That is, women counseling women only on “women’s issues” without any real halakhic authority of their own keeps women in a somewhat more official version of traditional gender roles.BOOK, Graetz, Naomi, Women and Religion in Israel, 2003, Brandeis University Press, in Melanie Rich and Kalpana Misra, Jewish feminism in Israel, 37, In 2014, the first women were elected as national officers of the Orthodox Union; specifically, three female national vice presidents and two female associate vice presidents were elected.WEB,jstandard.com/content/item/o.u._acts_to_increase_funding_for_schools_and_votes_first_women_to_national/32193, O.U. acts to increase funding for schools and votes first women to national posts, In June 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat and in keeping with newer policies, was given the freedom to choose her own title, and she chose to be addressed as “Rabbi”.Canadian Jewish News Why Orthodoxy Needs Female Rabbis, 25 November 2015 In 2015, Rabbi Kagedan completed a residency at Shira Hadasha in Australia.WEB,macroscope.com.au/, Macroscope, Home - Macroscope, 18 May 2017, 14 April 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210414114059/https://macroscope.com.au/, dead, However, in the fall of 2015, the Rabbinical Council of America, representing over a thousand Orthodox rabbis across the United States, formally adopted a policy prohibiting the ordination or hiring of women rabbis by synagogues that operate within the boundaries of their figurative jurisdiction, regardless of title.Times of Israel First Yeshivat Maharat Female Rabbi Hired by Orthodox Synagogue, 3 January 2016Also in 2015, the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a ruling which allows women to give instruction on Jewish law and to issue halachic decisions.WEB,www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Beit-Hillel-says-women-can-give-rulings-in-Jewish-law-387019, Beit Hillel says women can give rulings in Jewish law, The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com, 7 January 2015, Beit Hillel claimed that this ruling was the first time women issuing halachic rulings was formally affirmed in a written responsa of Jewish law.Also in 2015, Jennie Rosenfeld became the first female Orthodox spiritual advisor in Israel (specifically, she became the spiritual advisor, also called manhiga ruchanit, for the community of Efrat.)WEB,www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/1/26/with-female-spiritual-advisor-efrat-spotlights-womens-empowerment-in-israel#.VMZhzS7lw4I=, With female spiritual advisor, Efrat spotlights women’s empowerment in Israel, JNS.org, 26 January 2015,www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/1/26/with-female-spiritual-advisor-efrat-spotlights-womens-empowerment-in-israel#.VMZhzS7lw4I=," title="web.archive.org/web/20150207204326www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/1/26/with-female-spiritual-advisor-efrat-spotlights-womens-empowerment-in-israel#.VMZhzS7lw4I=,">web.archive.org/web/20150207204326www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/1/26/with-female-spiritual-advisor-efrat-spotlights-womens-empowerment-in-israel#.VMZhzS7lw4I=, 7 February 2015, dead, dmy-all, Also in 2015, the first Israeli political party dedicated to Haredi women was unveiled, called “B’Zhutan: Haredi Women Making Change”.In 2016 it was announced that Ephraim Mirvis created the job of ma’ayan by which women would be advisers on Jewish law in the area of family purity and as adult educators in Orthodox synagogues.WEB,www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/153491/chief-rabbi-mirvis-launches-new-qualification-female-educators, Chief Rabbi Mirvis launches new qualification for female educators, This requires a part-time training course for 18 months, which is the first such course in the United Kingdom.In 2017, the Orthodox Union adopted a policy banning women from serving as clergy, from holding titles such as “rabbi”, or from doing common clergy functions even without a title, in its congregations in the United States.NEWS,www.jweekly.com/2017/02/03/orthodox-union-bars-women-from-serving-as-clergy-in-its-synagogues/, Orthodox Union bars women from serving as clergy in its synagogues – J, J, 3 February 2017, Jweekly.com, 2017-02-04, Wilensky, David A. M.,

Haredi approaches

The leaders of Haredi Judaism regularly pronounce all forms of feminism as “Reform”, as non-Jewish, or as a threat to Jewish tradition. An article in Cross-currents criticizing advancing women’s leadership writes that: “The entirety of traditional Jewish religious life, including its age-old ritual norms and societal norms, even if they lack formal codification, reflects Torah values, be they halachic or hashkafic; every aspect of our multi-millennia traditional religious communal modality is embedded in or predicated upon halachic or hashkafic axioms. These axioms may not be apparent to the uninitiated, yet failure to perceive them does not grant a license to negate, dismiss or reform.“NEWS, Gordimer, Avrohom, Ordaining Women and the Role of Mesorah,www.cross-currents.com/archives/2013/06/03/what-about-mesorah-do-you-not-understand/#ixzz2uVOmqFmJ, 26 February 2014, Cross-currents, 3 June 2013, The haredi claim is that feminism is changing Torah.Haredi Judaism also espouses strict essentialist differences between men and women, rooted in ideas about God’s will and creation. The haredi worldview espouses the idea of womanhood as expressed in King Solomon’s poem “A Woman of Valor”, which praises a woman for maintaining the home, caring for the family, and food preparation, practices which the poem admires in women as part of their wisdom, courage, creativity, dedication, selflessness, and perhaps business acumen.WEB,www.aish.com/ci/w/48955426.html, Feminism & Judaism, Heller, Rebbetzin Tziporah, Tziporah Heller, aish.com, 8 January 2000, 23 July 2012, The most important thrust of haredi education for girls and young women is to educate, train and encourage them to become wives and mothers within large families devoted to the strictest Torah Judaism way of life. While most haredi women receive schooling in Beis Yaakov schools designed for them exclusively, the curriculum of these schools does not teach Talmud and neither encourages nor teaches its female students to study the same subjects as young haredi men in the haredi yeshivas. In some haredi communities, the education of girls in secular subjects (such as mathematics) is superior to that of boys. This is partly because of the greater time devoted to sacred subjects in the case of boys, and partly because many haredi women work in paid jobs to enable their husbands to engage in full-time Torah study or to bring in a second income.There is currently no movement within haredi Judaism to train women as rabbis, and there is no visible movement to advance women’s Talmudic knowledge. In the fall of 2015, the Agudath Israel of America, which is part of haredi Judaism, denounced moves to ordain women, and went even further, declaring Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Open Orthodoxy, and other affiliated entities to be similar to other dissident movements throughout Jewish history in having rejected basic tenets of Judaism.WEB,hamodia.com/2015/11/03/moetzes-open-orthodoxy-not-a-form-of-torah-judaism/, Moetzes: ‘Open Orthodoxy’ Not a Form of Torah Judaism, Hamodia, WEB,www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Breach-in-US-Orthodox-Judaism-grows-as-haredi-body-rejects-Open-Orthodoxy-institutions-431929, Breach in US Orthodox Judaism grows as haredi body rejects ‘Open Orthodoxy’ institutions, The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com, 3 November 2015, WEB,forward.com/news/323887/agudath-rabbis-declare-war-on-open-orthodoxy/, Avi Weiss Defends ‘Open Orthodoxy’ as Agudah Rabbis Declare War, Josh Nathan-Kazis, 3 November 2015, The Forward, Nevertheless, most haredi women are exposed to modern ideas and secular education, unlike most haredi men. Prof. Tamar El-or explored changes in women’s lives and the impact of mixed educational cultures on women’s empowerment in her seminal book, Educated and Ignorant about the education of women in the Gur Hassidic community.BOOK, El-Or, Tamar, Educated and Ignorant: Ultraorthodox Jewish Women and their World ., 1994, Lynne Rienner Pub., Boulder, CO, However, in 2016 it was learned that the Satmar sect issued a decree warning that university education for women was “dangerous”. Written in Yiddish, the decree warned:NEWS,www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ultra-orthodox-rabbis-ban-women-from-going-to-university-in-case-they-get-dangerous-secular-a7204171.html,ghostarchive.org/archive/20220608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ultra-orthodox-rabbis-ban-women-from-going-to-university-in-case-they-get-dangerous-secular-a7204171.html, 8 June 2022, subscription, live, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect bans women from going to university, 2016-08-22, en-GB, 2016-08-24, It has lately become the new trend that girls and married women are pursuing degrees in special education. Some attend classes and others online. And so we’d like to let their parents know that it is against the Torah.We will be very strict about this. No girls attending our school are allowed to study and get a degree. It is dangerous. Girls who will not abide will be forced to leave our school. Also, we will not give any jobs or teaching positions in the school to girls who’ve been to college or have a degree.We have to keep our school safe and we can’t allow any secular influences in our holy environment. It is against the base upon which our Mosed was built.There are some signs of a feminist movement beginning to sprout in the haredi world, especially in Israel. During the 2013 Israeli elections, Esti Shushan led a feminist drive to force haredi political parties to allow women to run on their lists (the parties currently forbid women from running). The campaign called on haredi women to refuse to vote for parties that exclude women.NEWS, Jeffay, Nathan, Israeli elections: Charedi women refuse to vote,www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/97420/israeli-elections-charedi-women-refuse-vote, 26 February 2014, The Jewish Chronicle, 10 January 2013, In addition, during the 2013 municipal elections in Israel, three haredi women took an unprecedented step and ran for their local municipalities—Shira Gergi in Safed, Ruth Colian in Petach Tikva, and Racheli Ibenboim in Jerusalem. Gergi is the only one who was elected, becoming the first haredi woman to sit on a municipal council, and becoming the first woman on the Safed council in twenty years.One of the most interesting voices of haredi feminism is that of Adina Bar-Shalom, daughter of the late Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Bar-Shalom established the Haredi College of Jerusalem, regularly speaks out about the importance of women’s education and work, and in 2013 established a women’s-only political party in the haredi town of Elad. In addition, in early 2014 she considered a bid to become the president of Israel.NEWS, Haaretz, Next goal of Shas leader’s daughter: Israeli presidency Adina Bar-Shalom, oldest daughter of Ovadia Yosef and founder of ultra-Orthodox college in Jerusalem, said to be angling for Shimon Peres’ job.,www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.569976, 26 February 2014, Haaretz, 22 January 2014, In March 2014, Bar-Shalom wrote that the haredi feminist revolution is already here. “The train has left the station”, she wrote.WEB, Bar-Shalom, Adina, Haredi feminism is already here,www.jewfem.com/index.php?option=com_easyblog&view=entry&id=419&Itemid=233, Translated by Elana Maryles Sztokman, Another emerging haredi voice is that of Esty Reider-Indorsky. She “came out” in March 2014 as a popular haredi columnist who had been writing under a man’s name—“Ari Solomon“—and has a large following under her pseudonym. In an article in YNet, Reider-Indorsky claimed that there is a strong feminist movement brewing in the haredi community, and asked non-haredi women to stay out of their own internal revolution. “Don’t patronize us”, she writes to non-haredi feminists. “Don’t make revolutions for us, or try to clean out our backyard. We are doing it in our own way and we are doing it better: There is an abundance of haredi women lawyers and women in start-ups.... There are haredi women who choose an academic career, and there are haredi women leading change in every area imaginable... The change will happen. it’s already happening.“NEWS, Rieder-Indosrky, Esty, Dear Israeli women, don’t patronize us,www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4496840,00.html, 9 March 2014, YNet (Hebrew), 9 March 2014, These are signs of the beginnings of the feminist movement in the haredi community in Israel.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Women in Jewish religious law, clergy, schools, groups, and rituals

{{further|Women in Judaism|Women rabbis}}In 1845, rabbis attending the Frankfort Synod of the emerging Reform Judaism declared women count in a minyan, a formalization of a customary Reform practice dating back to 1811.WEB,uf.sjc.vic.edu.au/religious-traditions-depth-studies/07/39, Understanding Faith | Title 45: Religious Traditions Depth Studies | Part 7: Significant People and Ideas in Judaism, 2015-02-08, dead,uf.sjc.vic.edu.au/religious-traditions-depth-studies/07/39/," title="web.archive.org/web/20140821083705uf.sjc.vic.edu.au/religious-traditions-depth-studies/07/39/,">web.archive.org/web/20140821083705uf.sjc.vic.edu.au/religious-traditions-depth-studies/07/39/, 21 August 2014, In 1854, Fanny Neuda wrote the first Jewish prayer book known to have been written by a woman for women, called Hours of Devotion; it was translated into English and published in the United States 12 years later.WEB,www.jta.org/2015/09/04/news-opinion/world/czech-author-of-first-womens-prayer-book-commemorated, Czech author of first women’s prayer book commemorated | Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jta.org, 4 September 2015, 2015-09-04, In 2015 a plaque honoring her was unveiled in LoÅ¡tice, where she lived while her husband was a rabbi there.In 1884, Julie Rosewald became America’s first female cantor (though she was born in Germany); she served San Francisco’s Temple Emanu-El, although she was not ordained.WEB,jwa.org/blog/Julie-Rosewald, Julie Rosewald: America’s first woman cantor, 6 October 2014, WEB,www.thejewishweek.com/news/short_takes/forgotten_woman_cantor_julie_rosewald_now_getting_her_due, The Forgotten Woman Cantor: Julie Rosewald Now Getting Her Due - The Jewish Week, The Jewish Week, 6 October 2014, 14 May 2016,www.thejewishweek.com/news/short_takes/forgotten_woman_cantor_julie_rosewald_now_getting_her_due," title="web.archive.org/web/20160514113854www.thejewishweek.com/news/short_takes/forgotten_woman_cantor_julie_rosewald_now_getting_her_due,">web.archive.org/web/20160514113854www.thejewishweek.com/news/short_takes/forgotten_woman_cantor_julie_rosewald_now_getting_her_due, dead, She served as a cantor there until 1893.File:RayFrankLitman.jpg|thumb|Ray FrankRay FrankOn 14 September 1890, Ray Frank gave the Rosh Hashanah sermon for a community in Spokane, Washington, thus becoming the first woman to preach from a synagogue pulpit, although she was not a rabbi.WEB,jwablog.jwa.org/rayfrank, Ray Frank: “Lady Preacher” of the West, Jwablog.jwa.org, 2009-09-14, 2010-11-19,jwablog.jwa.org/rayfrank," title="web.archive.org/web/20101105023107jwablog.jwa.org/rayfrank,">web.archive.org/web/20101105023107jwablog.jwa.org/rayfrank, 5 November 2010, dead, On 18 March 1922, the American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan held the first public celebration of a bat mitzvah in the United States, for his daughter Judith, at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, his synagogue in New York City.WEB,www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/firstbat.html, The First American Bat Mitvah, Jewishvirtuallibrary.org, 1922-03-18, 2013-04-13, Waskow, Arthur Ocean and Phyllis Ocean Berman. Excerpt from A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC at WEB,www.myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Bar_Bat_Mitzvah/History/HistoryBatMitzvah.htm, History of Bat Mizvah, 2007-10-10,myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Bar_Bat_Mitzvah/History/HistoryBatMitzvah.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20071013163838myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Bar_Bat_Mitzvah/History/HistoryBatMitzvah.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20071013163838myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Bar_Bat_Mitzvah/History/HistoryBatMitzvah.htm, 13 October 2007, live, Also in 1922, Martha Neumark and her father attended the Central Conference of American Rabbis Conference, where she succeeded in convincing the CCAR to ordain women rabbis.WEB,jwa.org/archive/jsp/perInfo.jsp?personID=1017, Personal Information for Martha Montor, Jwa.org, 2012-04-14, The CCAR declared in a responsa in 1922, “...woman cannot justly be denied the privilege of ordination”, having voted 56 to 11 in favor of that statement.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=Bd_AICOMwccC&q=martha+neumark&pg=PA392, Religions of the United States in Practice - Colleen McDannell - Google Books, 2001-10-29, 2012-04-14, 0691010013, McDannell, Colleen, Princeton University Press, Yet the board of the college still refused to consider women for ordination, voting (as Neumark recalled) six laymen to two rabbis against it. Neumark thus earned a qualification as a religious school principal instead of ordination, though she had spent {{frac|7|1|2}} years in a rabbinical school.Also in 1922 Irma Lindheim entered the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, though she eventually left for the “greater cause of Zionism”.WEB,lubbockonline.com/faith/2010-03-29/passover-time-join-tradition#.T4C489WZKVo, Passover a time to join in tradition | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock Online, 2010-03-29, 2012-04-14, While there, in 1923, she petitioned the faculty to change her status from that of special student to a regular student in the rabbinic program; in response, in May of that year they unanimously recommended the admission of women to the institute on the same basis as men.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=SH8r3ntJG8AC&q=%22irma+lindheim%22&pg=PA127, Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition - Tamar Rudavsky - Google Books, March 1995, 2012-04-14, 9780814774526, Rudavsky, Tamar, NYU Press, (File:ReginaJonas.jpg|thumb|Regina Jonas, the first formally ordained female rabbi)In 1935, Regina Jonas became the first formally ordained female rabbi; she was ordained by the liberal Rabbi Max Dienemann, who was the head of the Liberal Rabbis’ Association, in Offenbach am Main, Germany.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina, Regina Jonas | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 3 May 2012, WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina, Regina Jonas 1902–1944, Klapheck, Elisa, Jewish Women’s Archive, 3 April 2011, In 1939, Helen Levinthal became the first American woman to complete the entire course of study in a rabbinical school, which she did at the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.WEB,www.hadassah.org/site/c.9iKRJcNRIlI2F/b.6504549/k.D5D7/Moonbeams_A_Hadassah_Rosh_Hodesh_GuidebrWomen_Rabbis.htm,www.hadassah.org/site/c.9iKRJcNRIlI2F/b.6504549/k.D5D7/Moonbeams_A_Hadassah_Rosh_Hodesh_GuidebrWomen_Rabbis.htm," title="archive.today/20130415043759www.hadassah.org/site/c.9iKRJcNRIlI2F/b.6504549/k.D5D7/Moonbeams_A_Hadassah_Rosh_Hodesh_GuidebrWomen_Rabbis.htm,">archive.today/20130415043759www.hadassah.org/site/c.9iKRJcNRIlI2F/b.6504549/k.D5D7/Moonbeams_A_Hadassah_Rosh_Hodesh_GuidebrWomen_Rabbis.htm, dead, 15 April 2013, – Hadassah Young Women, hadassah.org, 14 January 2014, Her thesis was on women’s suffrage from the point of view of Jewish law.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rabbis-in-united-states, Rabbis in the United States – Jewish Women’s Archive, jwa.org, 14 January 2014, However, she only received a Master of Hebrew Letters (and a certificate recognizing her accomplishment) upon graduation, rather than a Master of Hebrew Letters and ordination as the men received, since the faculty felt it was not yet time for women’s ordination as rabbis.BOOK, Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Native American creation stories, Keller, R.S., Ruether, R.R., Cantlon, M., 2006, Indiana University Press, 9780253346872,books.google.com/books?id=WPILfbtT5tQC, BOOK, Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination 1889-1985, Nadell, P.S., 1999, Beacon Press, 9780807036495,archive.org/details/womenwhowouldber00nade, registration, In 1955, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism declared that women were eligible to chant the blessings before and after the reading of the Torah, a privilege called “Aliyah”.BOOK, The Jews of the United States, Diner, Hasia R., University of California Press, 2006, 350–358, WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/conservative-judaism-in-united-states, Conservative Judaism in the United States, 23 June 2021, However, in 1962, a study found that only eight conservative congregations had fully embraced the ruling while fifty implemented it with conditions and 196 congregations still had not adopted this newfound right of Jewish women. In the late 1960s, the first Orthodox Jewish women’s tefillah (prayer) group was created, on the holiday of Simhat Torah at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/womens-tefillah-movement, Women’s Tefillah Movement, 23 June 2021, This development came by the judgement of the synagogue’s rabbi, Shlomo Riskin. Further, the late 1960s saw Bat Mitzvahs, a public coming of age ritual for Jewish girls, become widespread after Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative Jews allowed women to partake in and lead a congregation in prayer.JOURNAL, Heschel, Susannah, 2007, Feminism, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 6. 2nd, 752–757, In 1973, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards passed a takkanah (ruling) allowing women to count in a minyan equally with men. Also in 1973, the United Synagogue of America, Conservative Judaism’s congregational association (now called the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism) resolved to allow women to participate in synagogue rituals and to promote equal opportunity for women for positions of leadership, authority, and responsibility in congregational life. In 1974, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adopted a series of proposals that equalized men and women in all areas of ritual, including serving as prayer leaders.In the early 1970s, new rituals began popularizing. Jewish women staged public ceremonies for the birth of their daughters, sharing the ritual of “brit millah” which was historically reserved for newborn sons. They started forming special groups for prayer and study on Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the new month, with their newfound freedoms to congregate. Women also contributed to the observance of Passover by placing a goblet of water, called “Miriam’s cup”, on the Seder table to include her, as Moses’ sister, in the narrative of his exodus from Egypt with the Jewish people.In 1972 Sally Priesand became America’s first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi, after Regina Jonas.WEB,ejewishphilanthropy.com/americas-first-female-rabbi-reflects-on-four-decades-since-ordination/, America’s First Female Rabbi Reflects on Four Decades Since Ordination, eJP, 8 May 2012, WEB,www.lib.usm.edu/spcol/exhibitions/item_of_the_month/iotm_june_2013.html, Newspaper clipping highlights one of world’s first female rabbis - Special Collections The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, Priesand was ordained by the Reform Jewish Seminary Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion on 3 June 1972, at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=_qkP-xe7Lp4C&pg=PA20, Women Rabbis: Exploration & Celebration: Papers Delivered at an Academic Conference Honoring Twenty Years of Women in the Rabbinate, 1972-1992, Hebrew Union College Press, Zola, Gary Phillip, 1996, 20, 0-87820-214-5, Also in 1972, a group of ten New York Jewish feminists calling themselves Ezrat Nashim (the women’s section in a synagogue, but also “women’s help“), took the issue of equality for women to the 1972 convention of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, presenting a document on 14 March that they named the “Call for Change”. The rabbis received the document in their convention packets, but Ezrat Nashim presented it during a meeting with the rabbis’ wives. The Call for Change demanded that women be accepted as witnesses before Jewish law, held obligated to perform all mitzvot, allowed full participation in religious observances, have equal rights in marriage and be allowed to initiate divorce, be counted in the minyan, and be permitted to assume positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the Jewish community. Paula Hyman, a member of Ezrat Nashim, wrote: “We recognized that the subordinate status of women was linked to their exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot (commandments), and we therefore accepted increased obligation as the corollary of equality.“Paula Hyman, Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution, Jewish Women’s Archive. (2006) With supportive persuasion from Gerson Cohen, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Rabbinical Assembly accepted their proposal in 1973 and the JTS in 1983.In 1973, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism voted to count men and women equally as members of a minyan.WEB,www.jta.org/1973/09/11/archive/women-equal-with-men-in-minyan, Women Equal with Men in Minyan, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 11 September 1973, In 1974 Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first female rabbi ordained in Reconstructionist Judaism.WEB,jwa.org/thisweek/may/19/1974/sandy-sasso/, This Week in History – Sandy Sasso ordained as first female Reconstructionist rabbi | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 19 May 1974, 3 May 2012, In 1975, Barbara Ostfeld-Horowitz became the first female cantor ordained in Reform Judaism.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/cantors-american-jewish-women, Cantors: American Jewish Women | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 2012-07-09, File:Gloria Steinem 1977 ©Lynn Gilbert.jpg|thumb|Gloria Steinem, a prominent Jewish feminist, attended Esther M. Broner’s 1976 women-only seder.]]In 1976, the first women-only Passover seder was held in Esther M. Broner’s New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Phyllis Chesler.This Week in History – E.M. Broner publishes “The Telling” | Jewish Women’s Archive. Jwa.org (1 March 1993). Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women’s haggadah for use at this seder.Non-Fiction: The Many Seders of Passover. JBooks.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this “Women’s Haggadah” in Ms. magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women’s Questions, the Women’s Plagues, and a women-centric “Dayenu”.The Women’s Haggadah (9780060611439): E. M. Broner, Naomi Nimrod: Books. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011.Esther M. Broner | Jewish Women’s Archive. Jwa.org. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. The original Women’s Seder has been held with the Women’s Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well.Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women’s Archive). Jwa.org (17 June 2005). Retrieved on 18 October 2011.WEB,www.questia.com/read/1P2-16241579, Women-Only Seder Held in Westmoreland County, Women celebrate non-traditional Seder – Britt Durgin Journalism {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101102162900brittdurgin.com/writing/women-celebrate-non-traditional-seder |date= 2 November 2010 }}. Brittdurgin.com (2 October 2010). Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Some seders (including the original Women’s Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, sometimes accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam.Miriam’s Cup: Miriam’s Cup rituals for the family Passover seder {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504070956www.miriamscup.com/RitualFirst.htm |date=4 May 2015 }}. Miriamscup.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Miriam’s cup originated in the 1980s in a Boston Rosh Chodesh group; it was invented by Stephanie Loo, who filled it with mayim hayim (living waters) and used it in a feminist ceremony of guided meditation.NEWS,www.jweekly.com/article/full/74341/why-miriams-cup-because-without-miriam-jewish-life-would-not-exist/, Why Miriam’s Cup? Because without Miriam, Jewish life would not exist | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California, J, Jweekly.com, 2015-04-02, 2015-04-13, Miriam’s cup is linked to the midrash of Miriam’s well, which “is a rabbinic legend that tells of a miraculous well that accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert at the Exodus from Egypt”.NEWS, Esserman, Rachel, Defrosting Judaism: A look at the Ritualwell Website,www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/Defrosting%20Judaism%20-%20Esserman.pdf, 29 January 2014, The Reporter, 1 September 2006, Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, 5, Print,www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/Defrosting%20Judaism%20-%20Esserman.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20140407064500www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/Defrosting%20Judaism%20-%20Esserman.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20140407064500www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/Defrosting%20Judaism%20-%20Esserman.pdf, 7 April 2014, dead, WEB,www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/The_Seder/Seder_Plate_and_Table/Miriams_Cup.shtml, Miriam’s Cup, My Jewish Learning, 2014-01-22, 2015-04-13, Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people.WEB, Tamara Cohen,www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/The_Seder/Seder_Plate_and_Table/Orange.shtml, An Orange on the Seder Plate, 28 March 2010, An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (as some would say there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate).Jewish Rituals for On the Seder Table {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130415172700www.ritualwell.org/holidays/passover/onthesedertable/primaryobject.2005-07-08.9776011383 |date=15 April 2013 }}. Ritualwell.org. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out—a gesture of spitting out and repudiating the homophobia of traditional Judaism.In 1978 Linda Rich became the first female cantor to sing in a Conservative synagogue, specifically Temple Beth Zion in Los Angeles, although she was not ordained.WEB,goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-8809585/CONSERVATIVE-FEMALE-CANTOR-FITS-IN.html, Conservative Female Cantor Fits in Religion: Linda Rich Follows Sweet-voiced Forefathers’ Career Path, Goliath.ecnext.com, 1980-01-01, 2014-08-25, In 1979 Linda Joy Holtzman was hired by Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County, which was then located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.WEB,archive.jta.org/article/1979/08/23/2985422/22-women-now-ordained-as-rabbis-most-of-them-do-not-have-pulpits, 22 Women Now Ordained As Rabbis Most of Them Do Not Have Pulpits, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 23 August 1979, 29 October 2014, She had graduated in 1979 from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, yet was hired by Beth Israel despite their being a Conservative congregation.NEWS,news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19790818&id=xLMwAAAAIBAJ&pg=5186,1102901, First woman rabbi to head template seeks to lead way for more women, The New York Times, The Ledger, 18 August 1979, 21 July 2012, The New York Times, Holtzman was thus the first woman to serve as a rabbi for a solely Conservative congregation, as the Conservative movement did not then ordain women.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=AfCF94AckkwC&q=%22linda+holtzman%22+%22first+woman%22+conservative&pg=PA337, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future - Elyse Goldstein, 2012-07-21, 9781580233590, Goldstein, Elyse, 2009, Jewish Lights Pub., However, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso served as rabbi along with her husband at the congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis from 1977 until 2013; Beth El Zedeck is identified with both the Reconstructionist and Conservative movements.WEB,www.indystar.com/article/20130519/LIFE/130519002/-Trail-blazing-Rabbi-Sandy-Sasso-retiring-after-36-years, Life - Indianapolis Star - indystar.com, Indianapolis Star, 29 October 2014, WEB, Sandy Sasso ordained as first female Reconstructionist rabbi,jwa.org/thisweek/may/19/1974/sandy-sasso, This Week in History, Jewish Women’s Archive, 24 December 2010, In 1981 the Jewish feminist group “B’not Esh”, Hebrew for “Daughters of Fire”, was founded.WEB,jwa.org/feminism/_html/JWA057.htm, Judith Plaskow - Jewish Women’s Archive, JOURNAL,muse.jhu.edu/journals/bridges_a_jewish_feminists_journal/summary/v016/16.1.brettschneider.html, Project MUSE - A Congenial Anarchy: An Affirmation of Jewish Feminist Space, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, 2011, 16, 1, 176–181, Brettschneider, Marla, Pegueros, Rosa Maria, As of 2011, this group meets for five days every year over Memorial Day weekend at the Grail, a Catholic laywomen’s retreat center in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. There they, to quote Merle Feld, one of their members, “explore issues of spirituality, social change, and the feminist transformation of Judaism”.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=gZtDEvQSI_wC&q=bnot+esh+jewish+feminist&pg=PA244, A Spiritual Life, 9780791441183, Feld, Merle, 1999, State University of New York Press, Also in 1981, Lynn Gottlieb became the first female rabbi ordained in Jewish Renewal.WEB,jwa.org/feminism/_html/JWA030.htm, Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women’s Archive), Jwa.org, 11 September 2003, 3 May 2012, In 1983, the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), the main educational institution of the Conservative movement, voted, without accompanying opinion, to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors. Paula Hyman, among others, took part in the vote as a member of the JTS faculty. There had been a special commission appointed by the Conservative movement to study the issue of ordaining women as rabbis, which met between 1977 and 1978, and consisted of 11 men and three women; the women were Marian Siner Gordon, an attorney, Rivkah Harris, an Assyriologist, and Francine Klagsbrun, a writer.WEB,jwa.org/feminism/klagsbrun-francine, Francine Klagsbrun | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 2015-09-07, Amy Eilberg became the first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism in 1985.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eilberg-amy, Amy Eilberg | Jewish Women’s Archive, Jwa.org, 3 May 2012, In disapproval of such developments, several members of the JTS separated in 1984 and formed the Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism. Later, in 1989, some of the dissidents founded the Institute of Traditional Judaism, an organization committed to “Genuine Faith and Intellectual Honesty”, a direct counter-establishment to the liberation of women in religious practice and Jewish societyIn 1987 Erica Lippitz and Marla Rosenfeld Barugel became the first female cantors ordained in Conservative Judaism. However, the Cantors Assembly, a professional organization of cantors associated with Conservative Judaism, did not allow women to join until 1990.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/1990/09/19/nyregion/a-bar-to-women-as-cantors-is-lifted.html, The New York Times, Ari L., Goldman, A Bar to Women as Cantors Is Lifted, 19 September 1990, In 1997 Gail Billig became the first female president of a major Orthodox synagogue, at Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, N.J.In 1999 Tamara Kolton became the very first rabbi (and therefore, since she was female, the first female rabbi) ordained in Humanistic Judaism.WEB,www.shj.org/shjbios.htm, Society for Humanistic Judaism – Rabbis and Leadership, Shj.org, 3 May 2012, dead,www.shj.org/shjbios.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130928164758www.shj.org/shjbios.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20130928164758www.shj.org/shjbios.htm, 28 September 2013, dmy, In 2001 Deborah Davis became the first cantor of either sex (and therefore, since she was female, the first female cantor) ordained in Humanistic Judaism; however, Humanistic Judaism has since stopped graduating cantors.WEB,www.jmwc.org/Women/womend.html, Contributions of Jewish Women to Music and Women to Jewish Music, JMWC, 2012-07-09, dead,www.jmwc.org/Women/womend.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20160512020657www.jmwc.org/Women/womend.html,">web.archive.org/web/20160512020657www.jmwc.org/Women/womend.html, 12 May 2016, In 2002, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism adapted a responsum by Rabbi David Fine, Women and the Minyan, which provides an official religious-law foundation for counting women in a minyan and explains the current Conservative approach to the role of women in prayer.WEB,www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/oh_55_1_2002.pdf, Archived copy, 10 December 2006, dead,www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/oh_55_1_2002.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20101127133632www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/oh_55_1_2002.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20101127133632www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/oh_55_1_2002.pdf, 27 November 2010,  {{small|(194 KB)}} This responsum holds that although Jewish women do not traditionally have the same obligations as men, Conservative women have, as a collective whole, voluntarily undertaken them. Because of this collective undertaking, the Fine responsum holds that Conservative women are eligible to serve as agents and decision-makers for others. The responsum also holds that traditionally-minded communities and individual women can opt out without being regarded by the Conservative movement as sinning. By adopting this responsum, the CJLS found itself in a position to provide a considered Jewish-law justification for its egalitarian practices, without having to rely on potentially unconvincing arguments, undermine the religious importance of community and clergy, ask individual women intrusive questions, repudiate the halakhic tradition, or label women following traditional practices as sinners.Also in 2002, Sharon Hordes became the first cantor of either sex (and therefore, since she was female, the first female cantor) ordained in Reconstructionist Judaism.WEB,www.kenesethisrael.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=43, Cantor Sharon Hordes, Kenesethisrael.com, 2012-07-09, dead,www.kenesethisrael.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=43," title="web.archive.org/web/20110713142907www.kenesethisrael.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=43,">web.archive.org/web/20110713142907www.kenesethisrael.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=43, 13 July 2011, Also in 2002, Avitall Gerstetter, who lived in Germany, became the first female cantor ordained in Jewish Renewal (and the first female cantor in Germany).In 2005, The Kohenet Institute was founded by Rabbi Jill Hammer and Holly Shere.WEB,jwa.org/thisweek/aug/14/2006/kohenet-hebrew-priestess-institute, Kohenet: the Hebrew Priestess Institute, launches its first training institute in Accord, NY, The Kohenet Institute, based at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut, offers a two-year course of study to women who are then ordained as Jewish priestesses.Kohenet: Hebrew Priestess Institute {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020201418www.kohenet.org/institute/ |date=20 October 2013 }}NEWS,www.jweekly.com/article/full/68940/jewish-american-priestess-kohenet-institute-ordains-women-for-a-new-jewish-/, Jewish American Priestess: Kohenet Institute ordains women for a new Jewish world, emma silvers, J, 28 June 2013, “Kohenet” is a feminine variation on “kohan”, meaning priest. The Kohenet Institute’s training involves earth-based spiritual practices that they believe harken back to pre–rabbinic Judaism; a time when, according to Kohenet’s founders, women took on many more (and much more powerful) spiritual leadership roles than are commonly taken by women today. A Jewish priestess may, according to Kohenet, act as a rabbi, but the two roles are not the same.In 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism adopted three responsa on the subject of niddah, which reaffirmed an obligation of Conservative women to abstain from sexual relations during and following menstruation and to immerse in a mikvah prior to resumption, while liberalizing observance requirements including shortening the length of the niddah period, lifting restrictions on non-sexual contact during niddah, and reducing the circumstances under which spotting and similar conditions would mandate abstinence.Rabbi Miriam Berkowitz, Mikveh and the Sanctity of Family Relations, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, 6 December 2006 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090320161101www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Mikveh_Introduction.doc |date=20 March 2009 }}Rabbi Susan Grossman, MIKVEH AND THE SANCTITY OF BEING CREATED HUMAN, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, 6 December 2006 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080407061730www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Grossman-Niddah.pdf |date=7 April 2008 }}Rabbi Avram Reisner, OBSERVING NIDDAH IN OUR DAY: AN INQUIRY ON THE STATUS OF PURITY AND THE PROHIBITION OF SEXUAL ACTIVITY WITH A MENSTRUANT, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, 6 December 2006 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080407061721www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Reisner-Niddah.pdf |date=7 April 2008 }}Rabbi Miriam Berkowitz, RESHAPING THE LAWS OF FAMILY PURITY FOR THE MODERN WORLD, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, 6 December 2006 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090320161047www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Berkowitz-Niddah.pdf |date=20 March 2009 }}Also in 2006, Susan Wehle became the first American female cantor ordained in Jewish Renewal;WEB,levinejudaica.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=0_33_148_712&products_id=11396, Cantorial/Hazzanut/Liturgical - CD Cantor Susan Wehle OB“M Songs of Healing & Hope | J. Levine Books & Judaica |, Levinejudaica.com, 2005-07-26, 2012-07-09, 18 January 2012,levinejudaica.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=0_33_148_712&products_id=11396," title="web.archive.org/web/20120118021637levinejudaica.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=0_33_148_712&products_id=11396,">web.archive.org/web/20120118021637levinejudaica.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=0_33_148_712&products_id=11396, dead, however she died in 2009.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/nyregion/15grief.html, The New York Times, Christine, Haughney, ‘It’s Not Even Six Degrees of Separation. It’s One.’, 15 February 2009, In June 2009, Avi Weiss ordained Sara Hurwitz with the title “maharat” (an acronym of manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit ToranitWEB,yeshivatmaharat.org/, home - Yeshivat Maharat, 1 February 2011, ) rather than “Rabbi”.NEWS,www.forward.com/forward-50-2009/, Forward 50, 2009, Eisner, Jane, 2009-11-14, The Forward, 13 March 2010, WEB,www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c52_a16167/Editorial__Opinion/Gary_Rosenblatt.html, Between a Rav and a Hard Place, www.thejewishweek.com,www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c52_a16167/Editorial__Opinion/Gary_Rosenblatt.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20090627205247www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c52_a16167/Editorial__Opinion/Gary_Rosenblatt.html,">web.archive.org/web/20090627205247www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c52_a16167/Editorial__Opinion/Gary_Rosenblatt.html, 27 June 2009, In February 2010, Weiss announced that he was changing maharat to a more familiar-sounding title “rabba”.NEWS,www.heebmagazine.com/rabba-sara-hurwitz-rocks-the-orthodox/, “Rabba” Sara Hurwitz Rocks the Orthodox, 10 March 2010, Heeb Magazine, 13 March 2010, The goal of this shift was to clarify Hurwitz’s position as a full member of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale rabbinic staff. The change was criticised by both Agudath Yisrael and the Rabbinical Council of America, who called the move “beyond the pale of Orthodox Judaism”.WEB,www.momentmag.com/do-1-rabba-2-rabbis-and-1-yeshiva-a-new-denomination/, Do 1 Rabba, 2 Rabbis and 1 Yeshiva = a New Denomination?, Staff, 8 March 2013, Moment Magazine, 21 March 2013, Weiss announced amidst criticism that the term “Rabba” would not be used anymore for his future students. Hurwitz will continue to use the title Rabba and is considered by some to be the first female Orthodox rabbi.WEB,www.jta.org/news/article/2010/03/09/1011006/weiss-backs-away-from-rabba-title-for-women, Amid Furor, Weiss Backs Away from ‘Rabba’ Title for Women, Harris, Ben, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 9 March 2010, 22 March 2010, dead,www.jta.org/news/article/2010/03/09/1011006/weiss-backs-away-from-rabba-title-for-women," title="web.archive.org/web/20110607053602www.jta.org/news/article/2010/03/09/1011006/weiss-backs-away-from-rabba-title-for-women,">web.archive.org/web/20110607053602www.jta.org/news/article/2010/03/09/1011006/weiss-backs-away-from-rabba-title-for-women, 7 June 2011, dmy,docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KCRr-i6GiWEJ:columbusjudaism.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Bulletin-for-website-May-2012.pdf+%22sally+priesand%22+%22first+reform+woman+rabbi%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiSpc6F3OkisK4Sn_iip26YBRs9D0CBa9i6tdy0Tu-VJRDyMnlg84qQL1dLCGZG6YPhXvUm4AjaDkZr86Nk2vaNNsCN2e_PvlILFbeJR0eckiOekxNRor3PReBXOo1SwYH4msFp&sig=AHIEtbRDDbGrmJUgRyB44ggo5-Ryvj3AAQ {{Bare URL inline|date=June 2022}}WEB,www.thejewishchronicle.net/view/full_story/14065296/matchbin, The Jewish Chronicle - Classifieds, News, Business, and Events, 6 October 2014, WEB,jwa.org/blog/celebrating-the-first-lights-of-women-rabbis, Celebrating the First Lights of Women Rabbis, 6 October 2014, However Weiss said other graduates of Yeshivat Maharat, which he founded, would not receive the rabba title, but the maharat smicha. But in 2015 Yaffa Epstein was ordained as Rabba by the Yeshivat Maharat. Also in 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained as Rabbi by that same organization, making her their first graduate to take the title Rabbi.Also in 2009 Tannoz Bahremand Foruzanfar, who was born in Iran, became the first Persian woman to be ordained as a cantor in the United States.WEB,ajrca.org/alumni/cantor-tannoz-bahremand-forunzanfar/, Cantor Tannoz Bahremand Forunzanfar; Academy for Jewish Religion, California, Ajrca.org, 10 August 2013, dead,ajrca.org/alumni/cantor-tannoz-bahremand-forunzanfar/," title="web.archive.org/web/20130320041940ajrca.org/alumni/cantor-tannoz-bahremand-forunzanfar/,">web.archive.org/web/20130320041940ajrca.org/alumni/cantor-tannoz-bahremand-forunzanfar/, 20 March 2013, Also in 2009, Alysa Stanton became the first African-American woman ordained as a rabbi.WEB,www.ijn.com/denver/1468-roots-of-rabbi-alysa-stantons-journey-in-colorado, Roots of Rabbi Alysa Stanton’s journey in Colorado, Ijn.com, 21 January 2010, 3 May 2012, dead,web.archive.org/web/20120311154330/https://www.ijn.com/denver/1468-roots-of-rabbi-alysa-stantons-journey-in-colorado, 11 March 2012, dmy, In 2010 the first American women to be ordained as cantors in Jewish Renewal after Susan Wehle’s ordination, Michal Rubin and Abbe Lyons, were both ordained.WEB,www.tikkunvor.org/Events/index.cfm?id=1392, Tikkun v’Or, Ithaca, NY - Celebration in honor of Cantor Abbe Lyons, Tikkunvor.org, 2010-02-07, 2012-07-09, dead,www.tikkunvor.org/Events/index.cfm?id=1392," title="web.archive.org/web/20120306064843www.tikkunvor.org/Events/index.cfm?id=1392,">web.archive.org/web/20120306064843www.tikkunvor.org/Events/index.cfm?id=1392, 6 March 2012, In January 2013 Tamar Frankiel became the president of the Academy for Jewish Religion in California, making her the first Orthodox woman to lead an American rabbinical school. The school itself is transdenominational, not Orthodox.In 2013 Malka Schaps became the first female haredi dean at an Israeli university when she was appointed dean of Bar Ilan University’s Faculty of Exact Sciences.NEWS,www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.550156, Malka Schaps Becomes First Female Haredi Dean at Israeli University, Haaretz.com, In 2013 the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a halachic ruling which allows women, for the first time, to say the Kaddish prayer in memory of their deceased parents.In 2013 SAR High School in Riverdale, New York began allowing girls to wrap tefillin during Shacharit-morning prayer; it is probably the first Modern Orthodox high school in the U.S. to do so.WEB,www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/nyc-orthodox-high-school-lets-girls-put-on-tefillin/2014/01/20/, The Jewish Press » » NYC Orthodox High School Lets Girls Put on Tefillin, Jewish Press News Briefs, The Jewish Press, 20 January 2014, On 26 October 2014 Rabbi Deborah Waxman was inaugurated as the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities.WEB,jewishexponent.com/community/2014/10/waxman-inaugurated-as-head-of-reconstructionist-rabbinical-college, Waxman Inaugurated as Head of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Jewish Exponent, 8 January 2015, 3 January 2015,jewishexponent.com/community/2014/10/waxman-inaugurated-as-head-of-reconstructionist-rabbinical-college," title="web.archive.org/web/20150103201512jewishexponent.com/community/2014/10/waxman-inaugurated-as-head-of-reconstructionist-rabbinical-college,">web.archive.org/web/20150103201512jewishexponent.com/community/2014/10/waxman-inaugurated-as-head-of-reconstructionist-rabbinical-college, dead, WEB,www.rrc.edu/node/1624?hero=1625, Video and Audio, RRC, 29 October 2014,www.rrc.edu/node/1624?hero=1625," title="web.archive.org/web/20140107154935www.rrc.edu/node/1624?hero=1625,">web.archive.org/web/20140107154935www.rrc.edu/node/1624?hero=1625, 7 January 2014, dead, dmy-all, WEB,www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader, Reconstructionists Pick First Woman, Lesbian As Denominational Leader - The Jewish Week, The Jewish Week, 29 October 2014, 19 May 2016,www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader," title="web.archive.org/web/20160519214708www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader,">web.archive.org/web/20160519214708www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader, dead, WEB,forward.com/articles/185252/trailblazing-reconstructionist-deborah-waxman-reli/?p=all, Trailblazing Reconstructionist Deborah Waxman Relishes Challenges of Judaism, 9 October 2013, The Jewish Daily Forward, 29 October 2014, Waxman is believed to be the first woman rabbi and first lesbian to lead a Jewish congregational union, and the first woman and first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is both a congregational union and a seminary.WEB,www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/ORPHAN_PDFs/RRC_WaxmanPresidentElect-ForPress3.pdf?hero=1615, Archived copy, 10 October 2013,www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/ORPHAN_PDFs/RRC_WaxmanPresidentElect-ForPress3.pdf?hero=1615," title="web.archive.org/web/20150924092703www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/ORPHAN_PDFs/RRC_WaxmanPresidentElect-ForPress3.pdf?hero=1615,">web.archive.org/web/20150924092703www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/ORPHAN_PDFs/RRC_WaxmanPresidentElect-ForPress3.pdf?hero=1615, 24 September 2015, dead, In 2014 the first ever book of halachic decisions written by women who were ordained to serve as poskim (Idit Bartov and Anat Novoselsky) was published.WEB,jpupdates.com/2014/06/26/first-halacha-sefer-women-makes-waves-israel-orthodox-world/, First Halacha Sefer By Women Makes Waves in Israeli Orthodox World -, dead,jpupdates.com/2014/06/26/first-halacha-sefer-women-makes-waves-israel-orthodox-world/," title="web.archive.org/web/20150325221418jpupdates.com/2014/06/26/first-halacha-sefer-women-makes-waves-israel-orthodox-world/,">web.archive.org/web/20150325221418jpupdates.com/2014/06/26/first-halacha-sefer-women-makes-waves-israel-orthodox-world/, 25 March 2015, dmy-all, The women were ordained by the municipal chief rabbi of Efrat, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, after completing Midreshet Lindenbaum women’s college’s five-year ordination course in advanced studies in Jewish law, as well as passing examinations equivalent to the rabbinate’s requirement for men.In 2014, Dr. Michelle Friedman became the first woman on the Beth Din of America’s board of directors.WEB,www.thejewishweek.com/news/short-takes/first-woman-joins-board-rca-beth-din, First Woman Joins Board of RCA Beth Din, The Jewish Week, 12 November 2014, 12 November 2014, 12 November 2014,www.thejewishweek.com/news/short-takes/first-woman-joins-board-rca-beth-din," title="web.archive.org/web/20141112161006www.thejewishweek.com/news/short-takes/first-woman-joins-board-rca-beth-din,">web.archive.org/web/20141112161006www.thejewishweek.com/news/short-takes/first-woman-joins-board-rca-beth-din, dead, In 2014, the first women were elected as national officers of the Orthodox Union; specifically, three female national vice presidents and two female associate vice presidents were elected.In June 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat and in keeping with newer policies, was given the freedom to choose her own title, and she chose to be addressed as “Rabbi”. However, in the fall of 2015, the Rabbinical Council of America, representing over a thousand Orthodox rabbis across the United States, formally adopted a policy prohibiting the ordination or hiring of women rabbis by synagogues that operate within the boundaries of their figurative jurisdiction, regardless of title. Similarly, in the fall of 2015, the Agudath Israel of America denounced moves to ordain women, and went even further, declaring Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Open Orthodoxy, and other affiliated entities to be similar to other dissident movements throughout Jewish history in having rejected basic tenets of Judaism.Also in 2015 the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a ruling which allows women to give instruction on Jewish law and to issue halachic decisions. Beit Hillel claimed that this ruling was the first time women issuing halachic rulings was formally affirmed in a written responsa of Jewish law.Also in 2015, Jennie Rosenfeld became the first female Orthodox spiritual advisor in Israel (specifically, she became the spiritual advisor, also called manhiga ruchanit, for the community of Efrat.)Also in 2015, Daryl Messinger became the first female chair of the Union for Reform Judaism.WEB, Eden, Ami,www.jta.org/2015/11/10/news-opinion/united-states/five-questions-for-the-first-woman-to-chair-the-union-for-reform-judaism, Five questions for the first woman to chair the Union for Reform Judaism | Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jta.org, 2015, 2015-11-10, In 2016, after four years of deliberation, the Reform seminary HUC-JIR decided to give women a choice of wording on their ordination certificates, including the option to have the same wording as men.Why a small word change is a big deal for Reform women rabbis JTA, 31 May 2016 Up until then, male candidates’ certificates identified them by the Reform movement’s traditional “morenu harav”, or “our teacher the rabbi”, while female candidates’ certificates only used the term “rav u’morah”, or “rabbi and teacher”. Rabbi Mary Zamore, executive director of the Reform movement’s Women’s Rabbinic Network, explained that the HUC was uncomfortable with giving women the same title as men. In 2012 she wrote to Rabbi David Ellenson, HUC’s then president, requesting that he address the discrepancy, which she said was “smacking of gender inequality”.In June 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat and in keeping with newer policies, was given the freedom to choose her own title, and she chose to be addressed as “Rabbi”.WEB,www.cjnews.com/featured/jewish-learning/why-orthodox-judaism-needs-female-rabbis, Why Orthodox Judaism needs female rabbis, Kagedan, Rabbi Lila, 2015-11-25, The Canadian Jewish News, en-US, 2019-05-05, She officially became the first female Modern Orthodox rabbi in the United States of America when the Modern Orthodox Mount Freedom Jewish Center in Randolph, New Jersey hired her as a spiritual leader in January 2016.WEB,www.jta.org/2016/01/11/united-states/nj-orthodox-shul-announces-hire-of-woman-using-rabbi-title, NJ Orthodox shul announces hire of woman using ‘rabbi’ title, 2016-01-11, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, en-US, 2019-05-05, WEB,www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/rabbi-lila-kagedan-first-female-rabbi-at-orthodox-shul-in-melbourne/2016/03/21/, Rabbi Lila Kagedan, First Female Rabbi at Orthodox Shul in Melbourne, Desk, Jewish Press News, 21 March 2016, en-US, 2019-05-05, As of 2019, Kagedan is working as the rabbi at Walnut Street Synagogue.WEB,walnutstreetsynagogue.com/clergy/,www.walnutstreetsynagogue.com/clergy/," title="web.archive.org/web/20161218221445www.walnutstreetsynagogue.com/clergy/,">web.archive.org/web/20161218221445www.walnutstreetsynagogue.com/clergy/, dead, 18 December 2016, Clergy, admin-walnut, Walnut, en-US, 2019-05-05, sofrot (scribes)“>

Women as sofrot (scribes)

A Sofer, Sopher, Sofer SeTaM, or Sofer ST“M (Heb: “scribe”, סופר סת״ם) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot, and other religious writings. (ST“M, סת״ם, is an abbreviation for Sefer Torahs, Tefillin, and Mezuzot. The plural of sofer is “soferim”, סופרים.) Forming the basis for the discussion of women becoming soferim, Talmud Gittin 45b states: “Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot written by a heretic, a star-worshipper, a slave, a woman, a minor, a Cuthean, or an apostate Jew, are unfit for ritual use.“WEB,www.geniza.net/ritual/women.shtml, Sofrut, www.geniza.net,www.geniza.net/ritual/women.shtml," title="web.archive.org/web/20091019133505www.geniza.net/ritual/women.shtml,">web.archive.org/web/20091019133505www.geniza.net/ritual/women.shtml, 19 October 2009, The rulings on Mezuzah and Tefillin are virtually undisputed among those who hold to the Talmudic Law. While Arba’ah Turim does not include women in its list of those ineligible to write Sifrei Torah, some see this as proof that women are permitted to write a Torah scroll.Tur, (Wikisource:Shulchan Aruch/Orach Chaim/271|Orah Hayyim 271). However today, virtually all Orthodox (both Modern and Haredi) authorities contest the idea that a woman is permitted to write a Sefer Torah. Yet women are permitted to inscribe Ketubot (marriage contracts), STaM not intended for ritual use, and other writings of Sofrut beyond simple STaM. In 2003 Canadian Aviel Barclay became the world’s first known traditionally trained female sofer.WEB,www.forward.com/articles/3614/, A Female Scribe’s Trailblazing Effort, Alice Lowenstein, 3 June 2005, The Forward, WEB,jwablog.jwa.org/soferet, Simchat Torah with a Soferet’s Torah, 11 October 2013,jwablog.jwa.org/soferet," title="web.archive.org/web/20110728044858jwablog.jwa.org/soferet,">web.archive.org/web/20110728044858jwablog.jwa.org/soferet, 28 July 2011, dead, In 2007 Jen Taylor Friedman, a British woman, became the first female sofer to scribe a Sefer Torah.WEB,www.forward.com/articles/11604/, As New Year Dawns, Jewish Women Mark Milestones, Leah Hochbaum Rosner, 12 September 2007, The Forward, In 2010 the first Sefer Torah scribed by a group of women (six female sofers, who were from Brazil, Canada, Israel, and the United States) was completed;WEB,jta.org/news/article/2010/10/15/2741313/womens-torah-dedicated-in-seattle, Women’s Torah dedicated in Seattle, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 16 October 2010, this was known as the Women’s Torah Project.NEWS,www.jweekly.com/article/full/59670/cjms-resident-scribe-takes-part-in-group-torah-project-in-seattle/, Julie Seltzer, a female Torah scribe from San Francisco, contributed to the first Torah scroll to be written by a group of women. - j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California, J, 22 October 2010, From October 2010 until spring 2011, Julie Seltzer, one of the female sofrot from the Women’s Torah Project, scribed a Sefer Torah as part of an exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. This makes her the first American female sofer to scribe a Sefer Torah; Julie Seltzer was born in Philadelphia and is non-denominationally Jewish.WEB,www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=8&oid=563, Page not found - Contemporary Jewish Museum - Art, People, and Ideas, San Francisco, CA, 6 October 2014, dead,www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=8&oid=563," title="web.archive.org/web/20110408164017www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=8&oid=563,">web.archive.org/web/20110408164017www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=8&oid=563, 8 April 2011, dmy-all, NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/arts/design/08sfculture.html, The New York Times, Bruce, Weber, A Torah Scribe Pushes the Parchment Ceiling, 8 November 2009, NEWS,www.jweekly.com/article/full/61328/cjm-to-celebrate-end-of-groundbreaking-torah-project, CJM to celebrate end of groundbreaking Torah project, andy altman-ohr, J, April 2011, From spring 2011 until August 2012 she scribed another Sefer Torah, this time for the Reform congregation Beth Israel in San Diego.WEB,www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=286912, Torah, she wrote, The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com, 7 October 2012, WEB,www.cbisd.org/news-and-stories/87-news-and-stories/1158-a-special-open-house-with-torah-scribe-julie-seltzer-observe-the-completion-of-our-torah,www.cbisd.org/news-and-stories/87-news-and-stories/1158-a-special-open-house-with-torah-scribe-julie-seltzer-observe-the-completion-of-our-torah," title="archive.today/20130414105124www.cbisd.org/news-and-stories/87-news-and-stories/1158-a-special-open-house-with-torah-scribe-julie-seltzer-observe-the-completion-of-our-torah,">archive.today/20130414105124www.cbisd.org/news-and-stories/87-news-and-stories/1158-a-special-open-house-with-torah-scribe-julie-seltzer-observe-the-completion-of-our-torah, dead, 14 April 2013, A Special Open House with Torah Scribe Julie Seltzer: Observe the Completion of our Torah, 30 October 2011, Seltzer was taught mostly by Jen Taylor Friedman. On 22 September 2013, Congregation Beth Elohim of New York dedicated a new Torah, which members of Beth Elohim said was the first Torah in New York City to be completed by a woman.WEB,brooklyn.news12.com/news/congregation-beth-elohim-in-park-slope-dedicates-new-torah-for-150th-anniversary-1.6119015, Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope dedicates new Torah for 150th anniversary, News 12 Brooklyn, dead,brooklyn.news12.com/news/congregation-beth-elohim-in-park-slope-dedicates-new-torah-for-150th-anniversary-1.6119015," title="web.archive.org/web/20150602035037brooklyn.news12.com/news/congregation-beth-elohim-in-park-slope-dedicates-new-torah-for-150th-anniversary-1.6119015,">web.archive.org/web/20150602035037brooklyn.news12.com/news/congregation-beth-elohim-in-park-slope-dedicates-new-torah-for-150th-anniversary-1.6119015, 2 June 2015, dmy-all, The Torah was scribed by Linda Coppleson.WEB,torah.cbebk.org/about/our-soferet/, Sefer Torah Project | Congregation Beth Elohim | Our Soferet, torah.cbebk.org,torah.cbebk.org/about/our-soferet/," title="web.archive.org/web/20131012013510torah.cbebk.org/about/our-soferet/,">web.archive.org/web/20131012013510torah.cbebk.org/about/our-soferet/, 12 October 2013, As of 2014, there are an estimated 20 female sofers in the world.WEB,www.pressherald.com/2014/08/23/female-jewish-scribe-helps-keep-tradition-alive/, Female Jewish scribe helps keep tradition alive, The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, 23 August 2014, 6 October 2014,

Women in Humanistic Judaism

Humanistic Judaism is a movement in Judaism that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish holidays and life cycle events (such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvah) with inspirational ceremonies that draw upon but go beyond traditional literature. Humanistic Judaism ordains both men and women as rabbis, and its first rabbi was a woman, Tamara Kolton, who was ordained in 1999.WEB,www.shj.org/shjbios.htm, Society for Humanistic Judaism - Rabbis and Leadership, Shj.org, 2012-03-12, dead,www.shj.org/shjbios.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130928164758www.shj.org/shjbios.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20130928164758www.shj.org/shjbios.htm, 28 September 2013, dmy, Its first cantor was also a woman, Deborah Davis, ordained in 2001; however, Humanistic Judaism has since stopped ordaining cantors. The Society for Humanistic Judaism issued a statement in 1996 stating in part, “we affirm that a woman has the moral right and should have the continuing legal right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy in accordance with her own ethical standards. Because a decision to terminate a pregnancy carries serious, irreversible consequences, it is one to be made with great care and with keen awareness of the complex psychological, emotional, and ethical implications.“Society for Humanistic Judaism - Reproductive Choice Abortion {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040305165842www.shj.org/Choice.htm |date= 5 March 2004 }} They also issued a statement in 2011 condemning the then-recent passage of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” by the U.S. House of Representatives, which they called “a direct attack on a woman’s right to choose”.Society for Humanistic Judaism Condemns Limit on Choice {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709054548www.shj.org/NewsAbortionFunding.html |date=9 July 2011 }} In 2012 they issued a resolution opposing conscience clauses that allow religious-affiliated institutions to be exempt from generally applicable requirements mandating reproductive healthcare services to individuals or employees.WEB,www.shj.org/ConscienceClauses.html, Society for Humanistic Judaism Opposes Conscience Clauses, www.shj.org,www.shj.org/ConscienceClauses.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130725135714www.shj.org/ConscienceClauses.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130725135714www.shj.org/ConscienceClauses.html, 25 July 2013, In 2013 they issued a resolution stating in part, “Therefore, be it resolved that: The Society for Humanistic Judaism wholeheartedly supports the observance of Women’s Equality Day on 26 August to commemorate the anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing women to vote; The Society condemns gender discrimination in all its forms, including restriction of rights, limited access to education, violence, and subjugation; and The Society commits itself to maintain vigilance and speak out in the fight to bring gender equality to our generation and to the generations that follow.“WEB,www.shj.org/WomensEqualityDay.html, Society for Humanistic Judaism - Gender Equality, www.shj.org,www.shj.org/WomensEqualityDay.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130928161629www.shj.org/WomensEqualityDay.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130928161629www.shj.org/WomensEqualityDay.html, 28 September 2013, Since the mid 19th century, the role of Jewish women in humanistic efforts has also extended to Second-Wave feminism. For instance, Ernestine Rose, an associate of civil rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, led the push for women’s rights to inherit property. As the daughter of a Polish rabbi, she simultaneously spoke out against anti-Semitism in her efforts. Additionally, Maud Nathan became a prominent voice in the suffrage movement of the early 20th century.

Israel

{{See also|Women in Israel}}From 1918 to 1926 women in Palestine fought for representation in the Yishuv movement. This was seen as the first wave of feminism, before the state was established.WEB,jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feminism-in-contemporary-israel, Feminism in Contemporary Israel {{!, Jewish Women’s Archive|website=jwa.org|access-date=2019-03-17}}In 1947 David Ben-Gurion agreed that the authority in matters of marriage and divorce would be invested in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and an agreement was signed stating that (among other matters), known as the “status quo letter”.WEB,www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/civil-marriage-israel-jews-secular-orthodox-rabbinical-court.html, Israel’s Rabbis Keep Lock on Jewish Marriage - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East, Al-Monitor, 13 October 2013,www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/civil-marriage-israel-jews-secular-orthodox-rabbinical-court.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20151121152127www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/civil-marriage-israel-jews-secular-orthodox-rabbinical-court.html,">web.archive.org/web/20151121152127www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/civil-marriage-israel-jews-secular-orthodox-rabbinical-court.html, 21 November 2015, dead, dmy-all, In 1953 the Knesset enacted the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law, 5713 – 1953.Bet Din and Judges Section 1 of the Law states, “Matters of marriage and divorce of Jews in Israel, being citizens or residents of the State, shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts.” The substantive provision of section 2 of this Law further states: “Marriages and divorces of Jews shall be performed in Israel in accordance with Jewish religious law” (din torah). However, a Muslim woman in Israel may petition for and receive a divorce through the Sharia courts without her husband’s consent under certain conditions, and a marriage contract may provide for other circumstances in which she may obtain a divorce without her husband’s consent. A Muslim man in Israel may divorce his wife without her consent and without petitioning the court.2010 Human Rights Report: Israel and the occupied territories. U.S. Department of state. This article incorporates public domain material from this source. Christians in Israel may seek official separations or divorces, depending on the denomination, through ecclesiastical courts.During a time when women made up less than seven percent of the Knesset, in 1969, Golda Meir was appointed Israel’s first female prime minister. .1972 marks the creation of the first radical women’s movement in Israel ]