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Women (NCJW) and Hadassah were also formed during this time period, paving the way for
women to participate in traditionally male institutions, such as the rabbinate. (Nadell 30-35, 151-
152).
Conservative Movement
The Conservative movement, on the other hand — founded on the theory that halakha is binding
yet evolving — made more radical changes in halakha.. But the decision giving women access to
the rabbinate also caused a riff among leaders, resulting in many Talmudic scholars from the JTC
leaving the organization to start their own institution. In 1973, JTS’s halakhic decision-making
body, the Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards (CJLS), passed a law allowing women to
count in minyanim. But one year later, the committee voted against women rabbis and cantors.
The question as to whether women should be able to become rabbis, the Committee decided,
warranted further study. In December 1977, the Rabbinical Assembly and the Jewish Theological
Seminary’s jointly created commission, the Commission for the Study of the Ordination of
Women as Rabbis, convened.
Within a year, eleven members agreed that “there is no direct halakhic objection to the acts of
training and ordaining a woman to be a rabbi, preacher, and teacher.” The findings were presented
to the Rabbinical Assembly. But the issue was shelved, and controversy continued. In the spring of
1983, JTS Chancellor Gershon Cohen announced that he would raise the issue again before the
Seminary faculty. That October, the Seminary faculty voted to admit women to the Rabbinical
School.(Nadell 172-186, 191-192). Soon after, JTS’s new chancellor, Dr. Ismar Schorsch,
admitted women to Cantorial School on the same grounds.
Reconstructionist Movement
Founded by Mordecai Kaplan, an eminent professor at the JTS, the Reconstructionist Movement
ordained women from the start. In 1968, women were accepted into the the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College, under the leadership of Ira Eisenstein, (Nadell 187-188). Reconstructionist
philosophy, like Reform beliefs, is founded on the basis that men and women have equal rights,
regardless of halakha. The first ordained female Reconstructionist female rabbi, Sandy Eisenberg
Sasso, gained a pulpit in 1977at Indianapolis’s Beth El Zadok, a synagogue which was affiliated
with both the Reconstructionist and Conservative movements. She thus became the first female
rabbi in a Conservative-affiliated congregation.
Orthodox Women
Orthodox women began pursuing a role in the rabbinate several decades later, but their enthusiasm
has been continuously squelched by prominent Jewish leaders. Some women, however, have
broken through the barriers to become rabbis. At least two women have openly declared that they
have received Orthodox smicha and several Orthodox women are currently studying in Israel to
receive smicha under an Orthodox rabbi. Blu Greenberg has advocated for women to become
rabbis since the mid 1980s. “Orthodox women,” she wrote, “should be ordained because it would
constitute a recognition of their intellectual accomplishments and spiritual attainments; because it
would encourage great Torah study; because it offers wider female models of religious life;
because women’s input into p’sak (interpretation of Jewish text,) absent for 2,000 years, is sorely
needed; because it will speed the process of reevaluating traditional definitions that support
hierarchy; because some Jews might find it easier to bring halakhic questions concerning family
and sexuality to a woman rabbi. And because of the justice of it all (Greenberg, Moment
Magazine, 52, 74).”
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, rabbi of Los Angeles Congregation B’nai David-Judea, agreed with
Greenburg. He said, “The stupidest thing the Orthodox community does now is not having women
rabbis. It wastes intellectual and spiritual talent” (JTA).
But orthodox women have not given up. In recent years, women’s yeshivot and learning
opportunities have expanded. From Drisha in New York City to Midrashat Lindenbaum
(Brovenders) in Israel, women’s learning opportunities have led to a new class of learned