c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ In a first for Orthodox Judaism, two prominent New York synagogues have hired women as”congregational interns,”a position stretching the role of women within tradition-bound Orthodoxy by including some duties normally performed by rabbis.

Orthodoxy is the only one of Judaism’s four major denominations that does not allow women to serve as rabbis, and all those directly connected with the new internships insist they are not involved in an incremental end-run around the prohibition.

Nonetheless, Blu Greenberg, a leading Orthodox feminist, hailed the hirings as a major step toward what she believes will be the eventual ordination of Orthodox women rabbis. “It’s quite amazing, actually,”Greenberg, an author and scholar in New York, said Tuesday (Dec. 23).”It’s a major step forward for women within Orthodoxy, and something that would not have been possible just a few years ago. It’s an exciting time.” The two synagogues involved are Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, where 24-year-old Julie Stern Joseph will serve as an intern, and the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx, where Sharona Margolin Halickman, also 24, will work. Both women’s positions are part time and announced in recent days.

The two synagogues are within Orthodoxy’s liberal wing and are led by rabbis who have championed the role of women within the parameters of Orthodoxy’s time-honored rules of appropriate gender-based behavior. Orthodoxy adheres closely to the traditional code of Jewish law known as”halacha,”which precludes women from leading mixed-gender prayer services or serving on rabbinic courts, among other things.

Joseph and Halickman will be engaged in pastoral and educational work. While halacha allows women to perform such tasks, Orthodox rabbis traditionally carry out such functions within the Orthodox community.

Joseph and Halickman are apparently the first Orthodox women who will officially perform those functions as part of synagogue hierarchies, according to Orthodox officials.”This is a major step in creating a formal role for women in the communal hierarchy,”said Joseph, a doctoral candidate in medieval Jewish history at New York’s Orthodox Yeshiva University.”But it is not a step toward creating a rabbinic role for women.” Halickman, who coordinates Jewish religious programs at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Bronx, agreed, adding:”I’m not interested in being ordained because I want to stay within the framework of halacha. But if I can serve as a role model, fine.” Greenberg said she understood”the emphasis on keeping everything kosher and non-controversial so as to take into consideration the community’s sensibilities. … But I also see this in some way connected, but maybe not directly leading to, the future when I believe Orthodox women will be ordained.”It won’t be these women, but they are the first models for those that will follow. What’s going on here is a desire to remain connected to thousands of years of tradition while also affecting change,”said Greenberg, president of the recently organized Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.

Long-ignored womens’ issues have become a major focus within Orthodox Judaism, which is both religiously and socially dominated by the community’s men. Despite criticism from more traditionalist Orthodox rabbis, Orthodox womens’ prayer groups and educational institutions have multiplied in recent years, and some Orthodox women have openly pushed for female ordination.

Last February, more than 1,000 women attended a conference in New York on feminism and Orthodoxy. A second such conference will be held in February 1998.

Rabbi Avi Weiss, of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, and a colleague, Rabbi Saul Berman, have created Torat Miriam, which trains women to serve as congregational interns. Weiss said another 10 women are currently in the program, and he hopes to place at least some of them in other Orthodox synagogues around the nation by September.

Orthodoxy’s more establishment organizations have reacted to the hiring of Joseph and Halickman with little criticism.”So far, everything we’ve heard about this is within the bounds of halacha,”said Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, a traditionalist Orthodox group.”It remains to be seen if this will become a step beyond what’s allowable or not.” Just under 10 percent of the U.S. Jewish population of about 5.6 million is Orthodox.

MJP END RIFKIN