It is the duty of the American rabbinate to look upon themselves “as shapers of tomorrow, to look beyond the present so that we may not be victims of the future.” This was the message given to the 1100-member Rabbinical Assembly by Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, Its newly elected president, in a statement following his installation into office at the conclusion of its five-day 74th annual convention at the Concord Hotel.
“These are unprecedently stormy times for American society and very hazardous times for the Jewish people.” Rabbi Waxman said. “The values and the structures by which we have lived are all being questioned. It is thus our prime duty today to remind our fellow Jews and our fellow Americans that there are permanent values learned over the ages which must be maintained as the enduring girders of any social structure.” Rabbi Waxman is the spiritual leader of Temple Israel of Great Neck, NY for the past 27 years and author of many works of Jewish scholarship.
The convention referred to the RA’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards further action on the recommendation by Rabbi Judah Nadich. the RA’s outgoing president, that the rabbinical organization of Conservative Judaism accept ordained women for membership.
Rabbi Seymour Siegel, professor of theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and chairman of the committee, told the convention that the RA has taken action in the area of women’s role in the synagogue and ritual life “mainly be cause we have felt it ethically imperative to do so. This view of the relationship of the ethical to the ritual, the aggada to the halacha, is in harmony with Jewish tradition and the history of Jewish law.
The final decision as to whether women will be allowed to be ordained by the JTS is up to the seminary which sets standards for admission to its rabbinical school. Two other rabbinical seminaries which have alumni in the RA–the Reform Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College permit the ordaining of women. Rabbi Siegel noted.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
