Eisenstein Says Women Will Qualify As Students at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Women will qualify as full-fledged students at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, its president, Rabbi Ira Eisenstein said today. He spoke at the opening session of a three-day conference of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation here. Rabbi Eisenstein said the college, which opened a year ago for the purpose of training rabbis and other Jewish leaders, was “well on its way to becoming one of America’s major institutions for post-graduate study.

“We are educating new leaders for a new time,” Rabbi Eisenstein said. “For the first time, the Ph.D. degree from a major university is a prerequisite for the title rabbi. This is our answer to the demands of the ecumenical age.”