The first Orthodox “Rabah” or female rabbi was ordained in the United States this past summer. She was given private, rather than institutional ordination.
While this is a terrific development, one has to marvel that what has become commonplace in the liberal branches of Judaism is still newsworthy — and controversial — in the Orthodox world.
Like so many other concepts that Reform Judaism was the first to embrace, slowly but surely, the other streams of Judaism have followed suit on the question of women as rabbis.
Since its beginning 200 years ago, Reform has been the catalyst for the modernization of Judaism, providing the vision and putting into practice what later becomes the norm for most, if not all, of the other streams of Judaism. In the area of equality and inclusion for women and other marginalized groups, Reform’s vision is truly remarkable.
The status of women was one of the first ideological changes that the earliest German reformers championed. The great reform thinker Abraham Geiger, who also was born 200 years ago, wrote in 1837:
“Let there be from now on no distinction between duties for men and women… no assumption of the spiritual minority of women, as though she were incapable of grasping the deep things in religion” (quoted in Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut’s 1963 book “The Rise of Reform Judaism”).
This pattern of the Reform movement embracing a controversial idea with the goal of making Judaism more inclusive and open has often been repeated. And the slow but sure acquiescence to such ideas in the other movements has been repeated as well.
On this 200th anniversary of Reform, it is fitting to take a moment to reflect on the vision for justice, rights and inclusion for all people for which the movement stands.
Other movements are still grappling with or closing the door on these subjects. And, in some cases, particularly in Israel, there is an effort to put the genie back in the bottle on the gains that have been made.
But there is no going back. Reform’s early vision and continuing leadership on the subject of full equality and inclusion within Judaism are here to stay.
Rabbi Dena A. Feingold is spiritual leader of Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha.
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