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.
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.
