Newspaper Page Text
Friday, Jwn« 2, 1972
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Page Eleven
The First Woman Rabbi
“RABBI SALLY”
By Jacob R. Marcus
Director, American Jewish
Archives
On Saturday, Juno 3, 1972, the
first woman rabbi will bo or
dained by a theological school,
on the Cincinnati campus of the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion. On that
date, Sally J. Priesand, now
serving as Student-Rabbi at the
Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cin
cinnati, will be ordained by
President Alfred Gottschalk.
Is “Rabbi Sally” the first
woman ever to study for the
rabbinate? When graduated,
will she be the first ordained
woman rabbi in the United
States? In the world? As every
historian knows, it is dangerous
to postulate “firsts.” There is
no “first” Jew anywhere; there
has always been one before. Is
this true of Rabbi Sally?
The Isaac M. Wise Temple is
named after the nineteenth-cen
tury rabbi who created the basic
institutions of American Liberal
Judaism. Wise died over seventy
years ago. Were he to return to
Cincinnati on June 3, would he
be shocked? Not in the least,
for when he first opened his
college in October, 1875, and
welcomed its sixteen freshmen,
one of them was a girl, age
eleven, in the seventh grade of
public school. She should have
been playing with jacks instead
of juggling Hebrew verbs.
There has never been a decade
at this school in which there has
not been at least one woman
student. Some of them stayed on
long enough to earn a Bachelor
of Hebrew Letters degree, but
they never went farther. Often
a girl student ended up feeling
sorry enough for a boy student
to put him out of his misery by
marrying him.
Sally is different. She means
business — rabbinical business.
She is determined to be a rabbi,
and by the grace of God and the
faculty she will be ordained.
She is attractive, but at this
juncture she seems not to be in
terested in marriage. Her fellow
students at the College are not
so much concerned about her
impending ordination as they
are about the title by which a
future husband will be known;
they are convinced that she will
not forego marriage. But surely
a name will be found! The par
sonage in Galveston is called
the rabbinage. The wife of a
rabbi is a rebetsin, a “rabbi-
ness,” but the husband of a
woman rabbi? When I asked
one of the students whether
they had thought of a solution
to this problem, he told me
quite solemnly that they had
already picked the husband’s
title: the “rabbit” I thought he
was pulling my leg, but he as
sured me that he was not.
“Rabbit," he told me, “is not
what you think it is, Doctor.
It is the afectionate diminutive
of rabbi.”
Will Sally set a precedent
for other women? She already
has. The New York School of
the College-Institute has two
female candidates for the rabbi
nate and two for the cantorate.
This is a radical innovation for
Jews — though not for Chris
tians. The first female Protes
tant clergyman finished her
theological studies at Oberlin
in 1850, but she was not lic-
e n s e d by a Congregational
Church till 1853. Her name was
Antoinette Louise Brown Black-
well. Four years earlier, her
sister-in-law to be, Elizabeth
Blackwell, had become the first
American woman to graduate
from a medical school and to
receive the degree of Doctor of
Medicine.
We still have to answer the
question: Will Sally be the first
female ordained rabbi in Amer
ica? In the world? In America,
yes; in the world, no. Regina
Jonas finished her theological
studies at the Berlin Academy
for the Science of Judaism in
the middle 1930’s. Her thesis
subject was: Can a Woman
Become a Rabbi? Of course she
set out to prove the affirmative.
The faculty aecepted'Jier disser
tation, but the professor of
Talmud, the licensing authority,
refused to ordain her. The Rev.
Dr. Max Dienemann, of Offen
bach, however, did ordain her,
and she practiced till 1940, pri-
• marily in homes for the aged.
The Germans then dispatched
her to the Theresienstadt Con
centration Camp where she
either died of natural causes or
was sent to the gas chambers.
Will Rabbi Sally get a job,
and will she be successful?
There is not the slightest doubt
that there will be no trouble in
placing her. She is competent
and unpretentious, a good
speaker and a fine human be
ing. The congregation will ad
mire and respect her! The chil
dren will love her.
It is sad to think that Amer
ican Jewry has had to wait so
long for a woman to be or
dained a rabbi. The American
Republic began with a political,
if not a social, revolution. The
impact of that revolution
throughout the world was tre
mendous. The generation of
1776 knew that it was ushering
in a new world. Look at
the back of the dollar bill, at
the Latin phrase under the
pyramid: "The new order of the
ages.” Some seventy-five years
later there was a religious
“break-through”: the Protest
ants ordained a woman. Now,
a hundred and nineteen years
later, the Reform Jews are
about to see Sally Priesand
ordained a rabbi. Galileo was
right: the earth does move—but
sometimes it moves very very
slowly.
PIONEER CLUB 1
Pioneer Women Club 1 held
its closing luncheon meet
ing at 12 noon, Wednesday, May
31, at the home of Mrs. S. Iteld,
1812 Meadowdale Ave.
WANTED!
THE GENERAL PUBLIC
AND
THE ZIONIST MEMBERSHIP
To Hear
The Celebrated Expert on Israel
and International Political Science,
Prof. Gerald Meister
MEET OTHER NATIONAL ZIONIST DIGNITARIES
8:00 P. M., Thursday, June 8
Atlanta Jewish Community Center,
Room 1
Signed: Harold Marcus, Chairman
Atlanta Zionist Fund Council
(See Narrative Elsewhere In This Issue)
^^—ozz# — ®® -
ern
L
ntfaej em en /a
Konsker-Korman
MISS KONSKER
Mr. and Mrs. Abe Konsker of
Atlanta announce the engage
ment of their daughter, Shar-
Iena, to Shlomo Korman son of
Mr. and Mrs. Josef Korman of
Lod, Israel.
Miss Konsker attended Ogle
thorpe College and worked for
the Georgia Department of
Revenue.
Mr. Korman graduated from
the University of Tel Aviv with
a degree in mathematics. He is
presently teaching at the Uni
versity of Tel Aviv, while work
ing towards a masters degree in
mathematics.
The wedding will be held Aug
ust 15 in Tel Aviv.
Kirschstein-Schultz
SAVANNAH — Mr. and Mrs.
Jack Kirschstein announce the
engagement of their daughter,
Karen Marsha, to Robert Mich
ael Schultz, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Abraham Schultz of North Bell-
more, N.Y.
The wedding is planned for
June 25.
The bride-elect Is a graduate
of Savannah High School and
was graduated from Boston Uni
versity with a BS in education.
She is a member of Alpha Ep
silon Phi Sorority.
The prospective bridegroom
was graduated cum laude from
Boston University with a BS de
gree in biology. He attends the
State University of New York,
Downstate Medical Center. He is
a member and past president of
Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity.
Hartman-Brooks
Mr. and Mrs. Sol Hartman, of
Atlanta, announce the engage
ment of their daughter, Susan
Ellen, to Peter Dean Brooks, son
of Mr. and Mrs. Irving Brooks
of North Bellmore, Long Island,
N.Y.
The bride-elect is the grand
daughter of Abraham Burgen
and the late Mrs. Burgen of Bir
mingham, and the late Mr. and
Mrs. Solomon Hartman of At
lanta.
Miss Hartman is a senior at
the University of Georgia. She
plans to graduate in August
with a BSed. degree in speech
communications.
Mr. Brooks is the grandson of
Mrs. David Topel and the late
Mr. Topel, and the late Mr. and
Mrs. Isaac Goldberg, all of New
York.
Mr. Brooks graduated from
the University of Georgia with a
BS degree specializing in food
science. He is now a food tech
nologist.
The wedding is planned for
September 3 at the Beth Jacob
Synagogue in Atlanta.
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