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Sh'ma
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9/170 MARCH 16,1979
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Women rabbis as a death sign
Pinchas Stolper
The Conservative Movement's move to ordain
women brought no hue and cry from Orthodoxy.
Why the silence? Still another radical step by
Conservative Judaism to break with the main• stream of historical Judaism and abandon an
additional requirement of tradition would have
brought a spate of articles and outcries twenty
years ago.
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Orthodox silence derives from the fact that, as a
movement, Conservative Judaism is no longer
taken seriously. It has long ceased to be a factor
in Jewish religious life. The defection of large
number ofJews from Orthodoxy to Conservatism
stopped a long time ago and today the movement
is in the opposite direction. When the sons and
daughters
of Conservative rabbis seek to find the
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reality of their religious heritage, they invariably
become baalei teshuva, accept the Orthodox way
of life, and enter Orthodox educational institutions and communities. Otherwise, they do what
most members of Conservative congregations
have long since done, — abandon Judaism in all
but name.
This new Conservative move is seen by the
Orthodox community as a gimmick, rather than
a genuine effort to bring women into the
rabbinate, and a tacit admission that Conservatism
is in fact a declining movement. For the Conservative movement, the ordination of women will
be a public announcement that they can no
longer attract enough men to fill their solitary,
small New York Seminary which has not grown
in student numbers for nearly thirty years,
though it is the one institution in the world
ordaining Conservative rabbis. Each year, only
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twenty or so men are ordained though there are
more than 100 Conservative synagogues in urgent
need of rabbis. Its total rabbinic student body is
approximately two hundred, a sad showing for a
movement which claims to represent 52% of
synagogue affiliated American Jews. The flow of
rabbis from Orthodox sources accepting
Conservative rabbinical positions has slowed to a
trickle.
Orthodoxy Is Undergoing A Revival
These statistics make a mockery of Conservatism's
pretenses at being a serious religious movement
and bode ill for its future. It is quite apparent that
the momentum of the Conservative "Movement"
in Judaism has fizzled, and that no one is any
longer really interested. The Conservative
movement does not have one popular religious
leader whose name would evoke a response;
whose method, approach, philosophy or leadership are widely known and respected. There is
not one Conservative name which has achieved a
following approaching any one of a dozen
Orthodox leaders such as Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik,
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, The Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Reb Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rabbi Isaac Hutner, —
among others.
In contrast to the austere sterility of the
Conservative "Movement", the pursuit of Torah
study on its highest levels is undergoing an
unprecedented revival in the Orthodox community.
At least ninety-five percent of the young men
pursuing Talmudic studies in the United States
are enrolled in Orthodox institutions. The
American and Canadian cities which boast
Orthodox rabbinical colleges span the continent,
covering almost every major city with a significant
Jewish population.
In all, there are in excess of seven thousand
students pursuing Talmudic studies on the
college and post-graduate level in the United
States under Orthodox auspices; and a few
thousand more Americans are studying in Israel.
This represents an unprecedented explosion of
commitment, scholarship and youthful idealism.
In ten years there will not be a major American
city without an Orthodox graduate, Kollel faculty.
The solitary comparable Conservative rabbinical
seminary, and the solitary Reform rabbinical
institution in the United States make a sad
showing when contrasted to Orthodoxy with its
vast network of over eighty four institutions.
Reform-Conservative Distinctions Will Blur
Admittedly, some of the Orthodox institutions
are small or recently established. But as they take
firm root with each passing year, they become
the rallying point for the positive forces in that
community and the generator of whatever hopes
exist for the survival of an educated, literate
Judaism in their respective communities. In time,
the dedicated young scholars of the senioryeshivot
elicit the admiration and support of the entire
Jewish community, Orthodox, Conservative and
Reform, generating a Jewish revival in Orthodox
terms throughout the community.
The Conservative call for women rabbis will serve
to do little more than widen its continuing breech
with traditional Judaism, and will further obliterate the distinction between the Reform and
Conservative movements in this country. While
they have just awakened to the role of women in
the synagogue and Jewish society, the Orthodox
community in America opened its first school to
provide women with an appropriate Jewish education over forty years ago. Today, there are
scores of Orthodox educational institutions for
women throughout the country with thousands
of students, including many schools on the college
level, in addition to seven college-level institutions in Israel serving American women.
We Cannot Compromise Our Tradition
The experience of the Reform Movement, which
has ordained women rabbis for several years, has
not been successful None of the ordained women
hold their own pulpit exclusively, and one has
become disillusioned and left the rabbinate. A
few weeks ago, Sally Preisand, the first reformed
"rabbi" resigned because she was unable to go
beyond the "associate rabbi" level Women who
choose to become "rabbis" find themselves dissatisfied once they have achieved their goal,
because the phenomenon stems from a basic
misunderstanding of the woman's role in the
synagogue and Judaism. On the other hand, the
graduates of Orthodoxy's women's institutions
as a rule find deep satisfaction in the roles provided for them throughout the Orthodox Jewish
community.
Although the dynamic growth and resurgence of
an Orthodoxy emerging triumphant is everywhere
in evidence, we dare not gloat. The tragedy of the
large Conservative and Reformed communities
torn from their Torah roots, declining and
withering by every significant yardstick, is appalling. No one doubts that there are thousands of
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Conservative and even Reform Jews who are
sensitive to the authentic and the real, who love
Torah and tradition, and who are deeply concerned with Jewish survival. They must be asked
to re-think and re-evaluate the disastrous failure
of the defeatist course their movements are
pursuing in America. The way to perpetuate
Judaism is not to adopt non-Jewish fads, or to
attempt to attract non-Jews through intermarriage, but to make a radical about face by
returning to authentic tradition. A religion which
subsists on gimmickry can not long survive — a
synagogue served by a woman rabbi is probably a
synagogue that will close its doors in less than
twenty years. The compromises of the Conservative
leadership not only deny the reality of Torah, in
the long run they simply do not work, even on
their own terms. The only synagogues which are
Sh'ma
a journal of Jewish
responsibility
Editor Eugene B. Borowitz
Asst. to the Editor Jeffrey K Salkin
Administrator Alicia Seeger
Fellows Steve Bauman, David Dalin, Mory Korenblit,
Michelle Mentzer, Anne Mintz
Production Photo Graphics
Contributing Editors Saul Berman, J. David Bleich,
Balfour Brickner, Paula Hyman, Nora Levin, Richard
Levy, Hans J. Morgenthau, David Novak, Harold
Schulweis, Henry Schwarzschild, Steven Schwarzschild,
Seymour Siegel, Sharon Strassfeld, Elie Wiesel, Arnold
Jacob Wolf, Michael Wyschogrod.
Sh'ma welcomes articles from diverse points of view.
Hence articles present only the views of the author, not those
of the editors. We do not correct obvious typos.
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9/170 March 16, 1979
packed with young people in this country are
Orthodox synagogues, and the schools which
attract young intellectuals in ever swelling
numbers are the Orthodox schools. In the end,
the way that works, that guarantees Jewish survival
and revival, which insures a thriving community,
which effectively resists the inroads of assimilation
and inner rot, is the way that is historic and authentic.
If the demographers and sociologists are correct
it will not be long before American Orthodoxy
emerges as the majority movement in American
Jewish life. The way things are heading Orthodoxy's
ranks will be swelled by many who abandoned the
cathedrals of Conservatism for the more modest,
but more honest and authentic synagogues of
American Orthodoxy.
Jewish law accepts healthy change
Seymour Siegel
What saddens me about the vituperative attack
of my ex-student at the Jewish Theological
Seminary, Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, is not only the
insulting tone of his remarks. More disturbing is
the assumption, so often made by the official
spokesmen of some segments of Orthodoxy, that
any action of non-Orthodox groups (and even
some groups within Orthodoxy) with which they
do not agree is motivated by "gimmickry" or a
"desperate" attempt to cover up the deficiencies
of a crumbling movement. Spokesmen like Rabbi
Stolper never consider the possibility that the
actions they oppose are motivated by a sincere
attempt to do the right thing; to strengthen the
Jewish community; or to further Jewish values.
If, and when, Rabbi Stolper reads the lengthy
report of the Commission on the Ordination of
Women in the Conservative Movement (which is
available to the public) he will see that those who
favored the ordination of women considered the
halachic parameters of the issue and were moved
by a desire to rectify what was perceived to be a
grievous wrong — the denial to women of the
privilege to study for the rabbinate. Rabbi Stolper
disagrees with the majority conclusion. So do
many within the Conservative movement. However, it does no one any good to allow disagreements to degenerate into name calling.
The Vitality Of Liberal Judaism Is Manifest
It would be demeaning for me to list for the
readers of Sh'ma the names of the great personal75
ities, the classic books, and the seminal ideas
which have emerged within the Conservative and
Reform movements. In their public comments
(and contrary to Rabbi Stolper there have been
public comments, one emanating from the
organization for which he works — the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations), some Orthodox
spokesmen see only evil in everything done by
other groups. This is a basic difference between
us and them. We rejoice (and even support) the
growth of Torah study and observance wherever it
appears in Jewish life. We wish all movements
dedicated to creative Jewish living — success.
What we will not do is to hold the Torah close to
our breasts, declaring that it belongs only to us,
and reading all other Jews out of klal yisrael.
Rabbi Stolper in his triumphalism makes some
inaccurate comments about the rabbinic leadership provided by non-Orthodox institutions. The
fact is that in the past decades some three hundred
orthodox rabbis have made application and joined
the Rabbinical Assembly, the organization of
Conservative rabbis. There are growing numbers
of congregations all over the world requesting
Conservative rabbis. The fact that many of these
requests cannot be filled does point to a shortage
of people. It also points to a persistently growing
demand.
New campuses of the Jewish Theological Seminary
and the Hebrew Union College have been opened
in Los Angeles, Jerusalem, and Buenos Aires. The
number of Solomon Schechter Day Schools has
grown dramatically in the past few years, and the
youth groups of the Conservative and Reform
movements continue to grow. Sociologists and
demographers of American Judaism with whom I
have spoken in the past weeks (at least one of
them an Orthodox Jew) affirm that in absolute
numbers, Orthodoxy is the smallest of the three
main groupings within our community.
Not All Who Study Serve Synagogues
Though there has been a leveling off in the population of day schools, it is true that the number of
students studying inyeshivot and kollelim has grown.
Of this, Orthodoxy can be justly proud. But this
growth in numbers has little to do with rabbinic
leadership available to congregations. The
graduates of kollelim by and large go into business
or the professions. If one is to believe the criticisms
in the Orthodox press, they do not even join
established Orthodox congregations. They form
their own steiblach and have little to do with
established Jewish life. Though there are some