48.5 F
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Orthodox Rabbis in NJ Vote to Ban Member Who is Training a Woman for the Clergy

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

The Rabbinical Council of Bergen County says it plans to exclude one of its members because he is permitting a woman who is training for ordination to work as an intern.

Orthodox Jewish custom does not allow women to serve as clergy.

As reported by the Jewish Standard in November, that member is Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Teaneck, NJ.

Netivot Shalom hired Marianne Novak as a rabbinic intern, prompting the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County to alter its bylaws, thereby moving Netivot and Helfgot its sphere of influence. Novak is reportedly studying for semicha, or rabbinic ordination, at Yeshivat Maharat. Upon graduation, she would presumably adopt the title of rabbah or of rabbi.

“People were concerned that Rabbi Helfgot’s association as part of the RCBC gave his hiring of a female rabbinic intern some sort of endorsement from the RCBC, which was concerning,” RCBC’s president Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz told Vos Iz Neias. “We didn’t want to do anything drastic like have somebody terminate an agreement that was already made.”

The bylaw change, which does not take effect until September, forbids membership by rabbis of congregations that allow women to fill rabbinic positions or internships as part of an ordination program.

“Ordaining women as clergy, championed by Yeshivat Maharat, Orthodox feminists and the small but growing number of synagogues who have hired the ordainees, has divided a movement whose leaders hew to a strict interpretation of gender roles under their interpretation of halacha, or Jewish law,” Vos Iz Neias reported. “In 2017, the Orthodox Union banned its affiliated Modern Orthodox synagogues from hiring women clergy. The non-Orthodox Jewish denominations have ordained women as rabbis and cantors for decades.”

Yigal Gross, an attorney who lives in Teaneck, NJ, recently authored a blog post in The Times of Israel in which he suggested that targeting Helfgot “seems like the bullying excesses of a mindless mob.”

“The piece was not written with input from anyone in Netivot,” Gross explained in an interview with the Jewish Standard. “But the issues that are at stake here transcend the interests of one shul and women rabbis. They pale in comparison to the larger communal issue, which is how our rabbinic leaders treat their positions and treat our community. It’s absolutely out of step with the values of our community. They basically took the tactics of communal ostracism and isolation that you reserve for get refusers and sexual deviants and have employed it against people who disagree with their views.”

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -