The 12 women scheduled to be ordained this month and in June as Reform rabbis and the two who will be named as Reconstructionist rabbis in June will bring to 61 the total number of women named Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis since the practice of ordaining women was begun in 1972, according to an annual Jewish Telegraphic Agency survey.
The 61 are comprised of 49 Reform women rabbis and 12 Reconstructionist, officials of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) reported.
The process of ordaining women as rabbis in the United States began when Sally Preisond was named the first woman rabbi in American history by the HUC-JIR, the Reform higher education and rabbinical seminary.
Ordination exercises for the 1981-82 Reform candidates will be held at Temple Emanu-El in New York on May 30 and at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati on June 5. The Reconstructionist graduation exercises will be held June 13 at Temple Judea in Philadelphia, site of the RRC.
The eight women to be named Reform rabbis in New York City are: Donna Berman of Valley Stream, N.Y.; Miriam Biatch of Studio City, Calif. Devorah Jacobson of Surfside, Fla.; Patricia Karlin of Plantation, Fla.; Deborah Zecher of Monroeville, Pa.; Amy Perlin of Washington, D.C.; Ruth Sohn of Teaneck, N.J.; and Julie Wolkoff of St. Louis Park, Minn.
The four women to be named Reform rabbis in Cincinnati are: Lenore Bohm of Atlanta, Ga., Deborah Hirsch of Chicago, Deno Feingold of Janesville, Wise.; and Sally Finestone of Clifton Forge, Va.
The two women who will be ordained as Reconstructionist rabbis in Philadelphia are Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer of Stanford, Calif., and Susan Schnur of Trenton, N.J.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
