jewscout
Religious Zionist
The next feminist revolution
The blessings had to be a secret. In 2000, just before becoming one of the first Orthodox women to be privately ordained by an Orthodox rabbi, Jewish academic Eveline Goodman-Thau took an unofficial survey of her colleagues and mentors, including rabbis, who confided that they were behind her, she says.
"I'm a serious scholar; I didn't want to make a fool of myself, so I asked around and some people - I can't say who - officially said 'go for it.'"
Nearly five years later, as she commutes back and forth from her Jerusalem home to teach Jewish philosophy and culture at the University of Vienna, a very small and underground yet growing circle of Modern Orthodox Israelis is considering the possibility that Jewish law supports ordination for women.
In public, the air remains distinctly silent - or hostile.
At a seminar discussing yeshiva education in the postmodern world at Jerusalem's Van Leer Institute a few weeks ago, when Goodman-Thau was introduced as a rabbi and doctor of philosophy, a male Orthodox rabbi and fellow panelist proclaimed to the audience that he did not accept her rabbinic credentials. For the time being, as the majority remains firmly opposed, most of the few Orthodox Jewish scholars and leaders who are open to the idea of female rabbis will only whisper their assent anonymously or behind closed doors.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111030174035&p=1006953079845
The blessings had to be a secret. In 2000, just before becoming one of the first Orthodox women to be privately ordained by an Orthodox rabbi, Jewish academic Eveline Goodman-Thau took an unofficial survey of her colleagues and mentors, including rabbis, who confided that they were behind her, she says.
"I'm a serious scholar; I didn't want to make a fool of myself, so I asked around and some people - I can't say who - officially said 'go for it.'"
Nearly five years later, as she commutes back and forth from her Jerusalem home to teach Jewish philosophy and culture at the University of Vienna, a very small and underground yet growing circle of Modern Orthodox Israelis is considering the possibility that Jewish law supports ordination for women.
In public, the air remains distinctly silent - or hostile.
At a seminar discussing yeshiva education in the postmodern world at Jerusalem's Van Leer Institute a few weeks ago, when Goodman-Thau was introduced as a rabbi and doctor of philosophy, a male Orthodox rabbi and fellow panelist proclaimed to the audience that he did not accept her rabbinic credentials. For the time being, as the majority remains firmly opposed, most of the few Orthodox Jewish scholars and leaders who are open to the idea of female rabbis will only whisper their assent anonymously or behind closed doors.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111030174035&p=1006953079845