Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Former Orthodox Feminist Leader Now Studying To Be Reform Rabbi

The former executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance announced Wednesday that she was studying to become a Reform rabbi.

Elana Maryles Sztokman wrote on her blog that her decision was “about finding a home where I can share values with the people around me, where I don’t have to explain myself all the time, where I don’t feel like I have to apologize for putting the real needs of women in the equation. That is incredibly liberating, and healing.”

Sztokman noted that in the past, her outspoken feminism had led Orthodox Jews to denigrate her by calling her “Reform.”

“But now,” she wrote, “my response is, ‘I take that as a compliment!’ To be Reform means to place human compassion before all else, to understand that we must be human beings before we are Jews. I am so excited about the idea of really living that way, and being surrounded by people who also live that way.”

Sztokman, a periodic contributor to the Forward, ran JOFA for a year and a half before leaving in early 2014. She will be studying at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in Jerusalem.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.