Tag Archive: Women of the Wall
Role Model for a Gay Jewish Man
By Seth Morrison, October 2013 After many years of repressing my sexuality, I met a wonderful Rabbi, Leila Gal Berner, who is both female and a proud Lesbian. She helped me accept myself and guided me in finding a therapist to begin the coming out process. Having Rabbi Leila as a role model was a…
Free to Be
By Dove Weissman, October 2013 Born in the early 70s, I am a product of the women’s liberation movement. I was dressed in baby bell-bottom blue jeans, if anything, and I was always told that I can be and do anything. The lyrics of Harry Belafonte and Marlo Thomas on “Free to be You and…
Women at the Torah
By A man from Houston, TX, October 2013 One of the great thrills of my life occurred when I was President of a rather small Conservative congregation about 30 years ago. During that period women not only were called up to the Torah but they read from it and carried it. An unheard of activity…
The Birth of a Nation
By Rabbi Joel Schwab, October 2013 I finally understood the Exodus from Egypt the day I heard a woman rabbi explain the entire process as the act of childbirth. The increasing pains of labor (“You must go and get the straw yourselves….”), the breaking of the water (“The waters were split….”), the narrow passage (the…
Singing my Way through the Sacred ’70s
By Fran Gordon, October 2013 As a ten year old girl in my Conservative synagogue in Akron, Ohio, I was introduced to singing liturgical text in a children’s choir and I haven’t stopped singing since. The prayers and stories of Our People form the core of my repertoire. I delight in sharing the pure joy…
From Exclusion to Community
By Charlotte Glazer Baer, October 2013 In my big Atlanta Conservative shul, I was the best student in my Hebrew class. I had a good, strong voice, knew all the prayers and chants and led Junior Congregation services every Saturday – until I became Bat Mitzvah. After that, I was no longer allowed on the…
Do Not Treat Women as Lesser Human Beings
By Morton Deutsch, October 2013 Throughout my personal life and my professional career, I have worked to support equality and justice in the relations between men and women as well as among the difference racial, ethnic, and religious groups. As a Jew, I have felt the hurts and humiliations that can be experienced when one…
From exclusion to inclusion
By Helen Stein, October 2013 In 1995, I traveled to Israel with my (male) research assistant. Our first stop, after we got off the plane and through customs, was the Kotel. We approached the Wall naively, without noticing that my kind was not welcome everywhere. Suddenly I was surrounded by 5 or 6 screaming young…
Women in Zionist Pioneering History
By Nachum Meyers, October 2013 When Aryeh Malkin left the Bronx, Lisa Engels took over our Hashomer Hatzair (youth guard) education. She too lived on Kibbutz Ein Dor. Our separate groups of boys and girls were joined and we had discussions on gender equality that led us young male chauvinists to appreciate the role of…
Mixed Messages
By Rachel Mann, October 2013 I grew up with mixed messages. My parents encouraged me to succeed academically, and I always felt my prospects were limitless; when I grew up, I could be anything my brothers could be. With one exception. In our Conservative non-egalitarian synagogue, my brothers, once of age, could read Torah and…
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