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January 31, 2003/Shevat 28 5763, Vol. 55, No. 23
Women rabbis meet in London
CLAIRE LEVY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LONDON - The 100 women who gathered in London for a conference on female rabbis may have come from different countries, but they found that they face many of the same challenges.
The four-day conference of the Women's Rabbinic Network, which ended Jan. 22, was the first held outside the United States, demonstrating the growing number and importance of women rabbis internationally.
Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige Middleton, the presiding rabbi at the main conference venue, the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in West London, was one of the meeting's co-chairs.
Women rabbis "come up against many challenges, struggles and opportunities that may not be shared with male colleagues," Middleton said.
For Jackie Tabick, who in 1975 became the first woman ordained as a rabbi in England, this week's conference was a milestone.
"It has made me feel that I'm not alone any more," she said. "Eight years after the first woman was ordained in the U.S. there were 50 women rabbis. In Britain, there are 30 after 35 years."
Conference co-organizer Rabbi Marcia Plumb, who was born in the United States but is based in London, sees a renaissance in the British Reform and liberal worlds, sparked in part by women.
"There is an enhanced sense of drive and enthusiasm," she says, and "many of the new ideas - such as the creation of new prayers - are coming from women."
With women coming to the conference from the United States, Belarus, Israel and several European countries, the theme was building bridges between women rabbis in different countries.
The women rabbis need to "fight society's expectations of role," Tabick said. "Women are seen as nurturers, not as leaders."
Plumb recalls a member of her community asking, "If you're here, who is doing the cooking and the shopping?"
"Well, my husband is doing the cooking and the shopping," she replied, "and that's just fine."
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