Enthusiastic applause greeted Sara Hurwitz when she stepped to the podium last month to address a gathering of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance in New York. Two months earlier, Ms. Hurwitz’s mentor, Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, had given her the title of “rabba,” or female rabbi, making her the most visible woman to join the Orthodox clergy. “The community is inspired, electrified and supportive of women functioning in rabbinic roles,” Rabba Hurwitz told the audience. That support, however, is far from universal.
In February the Agudath Israel of America, an ultra-Orthodox organization, blasted Rabba Hurwitz’s title as a “radical and dangerous departure from Jewish tradition” that “must be condemned in the strongest terms.” Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz warned, “We cannot allow someone whose guide is 20th century feminism . . . to hijack and attempt to redefine Orthodoxy.”
Rabbi Moshe Kletenik, president of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), a centrist group of Orthodox rabbis, told me, “A woman cannot be ordained as a rabbi or serve in the role of a rabbi based on our tradition.” Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, a vice president of the RCA, went further, likening the idea of female clergy to “pagan ideologies.”
This news items isn’t really important. No one who matters in the Orthodox/Haredi/Chasidic world (which is the only part which is growing, not shrinking) will recognize her existence except as a Jewish person.
My understanding is that, under pressure, she is no longer using the title.
However, as most people know, “rabbi” is really just a title meaning that a person has been certified as having obtained the necessary background/knowledge of Jewish law and teachings to function as an authority in the area. The Orthodox do not necessarily object to such a certification (several Orthodox women have been “ordained” in this sense.) What they object to is a woman functioning in this role. It’s not clear that this actually violates Jewish law, however — especially when the role of “rabbi” is limited to interacting primarily with other women.