American Reform Judaism: An Introduction

Chapter 9: The Struggle for Women’s Equality

186 Chapter 9 On June 3, 1972 I was ordained rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. As I sat in the historic Plum Street Temple, waiting to accept the ancient rite of s’micha, I couldn’t help but reflect on the implications of what was about to happen. For thousands of years women in Judaism had been second-class citizens. They were not permitted to own property. They could not serve as witnesses. They did not have the right to initiate divorce proceedings. They were not counted in the minyan. Even in Reform Judaism, they were not permitted to participate fully in the life of the synagogue. With my ordination all that was going to change; one more barrier was about to be broken. —sally j. priesand, 1972 The reform movement set out to offer liberal Jews a modernized form of Jewish religious belief and ritual practice that would emphasize personal faith and ethical behavior. The movement declared that while it would draw on the traditional rabbinic literature for wisdom and inspiration , it was not obligated by the halacha. This made it easy for Reform to adapt to modern sensitivities and sensibilities, and it did so. One area immediately reformed was the religious roles of men and women. Religious education was now an obligation equally incumbent on both sexes, and the confirmation service that marked the formal entrance of the young Jew into the religious community would include The Struggle for Women’s Equality Women’s Equality 187 both males and females. Perhaps even more important, the accessible worship service conducted partly in German or English was stimulating for women with limited Hebrew language and synagogue skills. Many traditional ritual observances conducted by women in the home were eliminated or at least minimized as Classical Reform Judaism attempted to articulate a rationalistic and deritualized vision of modern Jewish life. While on the surface this appeared to place women and men on the same level, the elimination of female ritual roles actually reduced female participation in religious life. The dramatic social upheaval of the 1960s would find most Reform synagogues vaguely egalitarian in principle but male dominated in both their power structure and ritual life. It would be hard to underestimate the influence of late-twentiethcentury feminism on American Reform Judaism. Indeed, feminist values have generated much of the heat behind the “culture wars” pitting social conservatives against political liberals.1 A number of mainline Protestant denominations have found themselves torn apart by this battle. For the liberals, religious authenticity is determined in large part by the zeitgeist of the contemporary age. Truth is viewed as a process, progressively discovered over the course of time, rather than as an external immutable authority. The progressives see nothing wrong with changing the historic role of women in light of cultural and societal changes. The conservatives, in contrast, see the traditional sex and gender roles as central to their religious values, not subject to shortterm change. Unlike the Episcopalians, Methodists, or Presbyterians, the American Reform movement has no significant conservative wing. Despite the time it has taken for women to break into many traditionally male roles, there was little ideological opposition to full egalitarianism . By the 1970s, women were participating in all aspects of synagogue life, including serving as congregational rabbis.2 Social differentiation between the sexes has virtually disappeared in the contemporary American Reform movement. One reason social equality made such headway so quickly in the Reform movement was the absence of halachic or ideological bases for anyone to oppose it. The only barrier was the conservative nature of many Reform congregations and their leaders, often wealthy, middleaged men who were certainly not in the forefront of the feminist move- 188 american reform judaism ment. But they adjusted and barriers quickly fell. In the Conservative movement, on the other hand, a strong contingent vigorously opposed women’s rights on halachic grounds.3 Making the transition even easier was Reform’s full acceptance of the concept of egalitarianism, at least in theory. Thus, there was no need to change Reform theology or ritual practice to accommodate a fuller role for women. Women could read prayers, serve on synagogue boards, and even become rabbis and cantors without upsetting the theoretical basis of Reform Judaism. Family life had always been of central importance to Judaism, and the Reform movement reaffirmed this importance...