Encore Archive
On this page, we present essays–, profound or timely–culled from the CLAL literary archive. CLAL faculty members wrote many of the articles that appear here, past and present. Many were written by others and originally appeared in the pages of Sh'ma– journal of Jewish responsibility, which was founded by Eugene Borowitz in 1970 and published by CLAL (and edited by Nina Cardin) from 1994-1998.
For further information regarding Sh'ma today, click here.
We also hope that you will visit Encore Talk and join in a dialogue about the issues these articles raise. We also encourage you to post your reflections on how your own take on the issue under discussion has shifted (or not, as the case may be) over the years.
To join the conversation at CLAL Encore Talk, click here.
(from Sh'ma 13/250, March 18, 1983)
The Priorities of a Woman Rabbi
By Ellen Lewis
When, as a third-year rabbinical student, I began serving a bi-weekly congregation
outside Pittsburgh in the fall of 1977, I was introduced to a young girl who was due to
become bat mitzvah shortly after the High Holidays. As the time grew closer, we began to
rehearse in the sanctuary. One day, as we were standing on the bimah working out the final
details of the ceremony, Beth looked up at me. "Rabbi Lewis," she began
hesitantly, "for my bat mitzvah, do you think we could wear matching dresses?"
The presence of women in the rabbinate has changed it and will continue to, but not
because women possess greater sensitivity or more compassion than men -- all of us know
insensitive women and sensitive men. The entrance of women of diverse backgrounds by
definition broadens the rabbinate.
The presence of women in the rabbinate may change the rabbinate in another equally
fundamental way. When I was still a student, an older and wiser friend once predicted that
women will bring new priorities to the rabbinate. "These new priorities will change
the definition of a 'plum' congregation," she said. "Congregations which weren't
considered desirable might be more appealing to women."
Being a Mother and Choosing a Job
My own case is a case in point. My fantasy congregation, I always thought, would be
much like the one in which I had grown up: a solo position in a 300 family traditional
Reform congregation in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. How did it happen that I
now serve as the third rabbi in a 2200 family Classical Reform congregation in (of all
places!) Dallas, Texas?
Like most other women rabbis and rabbinical students, I am in my prime child-bearing
years. Unlike the resumes of the other women in my class, my resume included a baby who
was three months old at the time interviewing began. That baby was the central (often
unspoken) issue of my first few job interviews. It quickly became clear to me that my
being a mother was considered a handicap rather than an asset, despite the Reform
movement's advocacy of the three-child family. It became equally clear to me that I did
not want to work for a congregation which thought of my child as an impediment to my
rabbinic effectiveness.
My first interview with the congregation where I now work bore a marked contrast to my
previous interviews. This time, the first question was, "We notice you have a young
child. How could we best help you and your family feel at home in Dallas?"
A Congregation Concerned For Families
A member of the Rabbinic Search Committee volunteered to help us find child care. The
search committee itself worked hard and continues to work at helping me define my job so
that I can fulfill both personal and professional goals. Last year, when I broached the
idea of maternity leave, their response was: "If it's right, we'll do it."
One year after my arrival, the Temple Board voted to establish a pre?school with extended
day care for children eighteen months and older. The Temple is presently looking into
setting up an infant care program. A congregation which demonstrates this kind of concern
for young families would be as attractive to many of my female colleagues as it is to me.
These kinds of priorities on the part of female rabbis may well change the nature of the
rabbinate. I may yet end up in the congregation of my original fantasy, but for now, as a
rabbi committed both personally and professionally to the future of the Jewish people, I
know I have made the right choice.
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