The Reconstructionist movement tapped a lesbian rabbi to head its Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Toba Spitzer of West Newton, Mass., is to be formally elected at the movement’s March 11-14 convention. Spitzer is a 1997 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and has been serving Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, a Reconstructionist congregation in West Newton, for the past 10 years, the movement said in a release Tuesday. Spitzer s election continues the Reconstructionist movement s trailblazing tradition on gay and lesbian issues. In 1984, Reconstructionism became the first American Jewish movement to ordain gay rabbis, a move since followed by the Reform movement in 1990 and possibly by the Conservative movement in the coming months.
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