Life

Yeshivat Maharat and the Deafening Silence of the Orthodox Establishment

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen May 26, 2009

One of Sara Hurwitz’s sons recently said more, related to the recent conferral of her new title of Maharat, than many others publicly have. Four-year-old Zacharya told her “only boys can be rabbis.”

Hurwitz laughed it off — explaining that her kids don’t get to see her working in her position of leadership at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, since they’d have a hard time not interrupting her, and saying “he doesn’t hear women being called ‘rabbi.’”

And he still won’t, since his mother, at her conferral in March, was given the title Madricha Hilchatit, Ruchanit v’Toranit, or Leader in Jewish Law, Spiritual Matters, and Torah.

More recently came the announcement of a new training center being started by her mentor, Rabbi Avi Weiss, who in the fall will begin the Maharat Yeshiva The goal of the four-year program is to prepare other women for rabbinic positions in synagogues, schools and on university campuses.

While controversy about the title Maharat buzzed, briefly, through the blogosphere news about this new yeshiva seems to have prompted little more reaction than discussions over kiddush in some synagogues.

There has been no public reaction from the Orthodox Union (with which the Hebrew Institute is affiliated) or the Rabbinical Council of America the professional group with which Rabbi Weiss is affiliated (though surely there are RCA members who would like to see that change for the politically outspoken rabbi).

The Agudath Israel of America, an organization representing the “black-hat,” right-wing Orthodox community, has no Web site to check, since their rabbis say that frum Jews should not be using the Web. Nonetheless, nothing seems to have been said by their lead spokesman, who is often quick to condemn the liberal denominations and liberalizing movements within Orthodoxy.

Is this silence from the Orthodox establishment illustrative of perhaps the most dangerous reaction of all to this new move toward ordaining Orthodox women as rabbis? Does their apparent indifference indicate just how marginal they consider the step?

Blu Greenberg a long-time leading voice of Orthodox feminism, told The Sisterhood, “I thought the reaction was going to be negative and I told Rabbi Weiss he was opening himself up for criticism with this. … But it has been such a strong and positive reaction,” to the conferral of Maharat Hurwitz and the yeshiva announcement.

Rather than indifference on the part of Orthodox institutions, she said, “there’s a certain amount of caution here. Every time they have come out with strongly negative or harsh statements in the past [as when she founded the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance 12 years ago] it has redounded to the benefit of the organizations they’re criticizing.”

In fact, said Hurwitz, who has twin 4-year-old sons and a 9-month-old son, “There is a lot of excitement. Women are really interested in having an institution where they have an actual potential career path. … It’s exhilarating, quite honestly, to talk to these women and realize that we might be fulfilling a dream they’ve had. The women say ‘I’ve always wanted to be an Orthodox rabbi.’ “

When asked what she thinks of the title Maharat, she hesitates.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” she says after a pause. “I think it’s a nice compromise. It allows women who are involved in the more centrist Orthodox communities to have more acceptance. If they had the title rabbi, they wouldn’t be taken seriously at all.”

The challenge, she said, is whether the title will come to mean rabbi — and “that’s really up to us.“

Debra Nussbaum Cohen is an award-winning journalist and the author of Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls into the Covenant. Follow her on Instagram @debranc or email her at [email protected].

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