Timeline Of A Jewish Feminist Revolution

How did we go from an Orthodox Judaism that excluded women to a Orthodox Judaism that is now beginning to ordain them in less than 50 years? Like this.

 

Timeline of a Jewish Feminist Revolution
Elana Maryles Sztokman

· 1973 First National Jewish Women’s conference

· 1975 First women’s tefilla groups in America

· 1975 Pelech School in Jerusalem, under leadership of Dr Alice Shalvi, becomes first state religious school in Israel to teach girls Talmud (taught by Dr Beverly Gribetz); Pelech becomes model for religious feminist education in Israel

· 1976 Michlelet Bruria (“Brovender’s”), today known as “Midreshet Lindenbaum”, first yeshiva for advanced women’s Talmud in Israel

· 1979 Drisha, founded by Rabbi David Silber, is the first yeshiva for advanced women’s Talmud study in the United States

· 1980 Establishment of Kehillat Yedidya synagogue in Jerusalem which broke barriers like having women give divrei Torah and passing the Torah scroll around the women’s section and later women reading Torah

· 1981 Publication of Blu Greenberg’s On Being a Jewish Woman

· 1982 Yael Ukeles is the first bat mitzvah girl to read Torah at a Women’s Tefillah group; Norma Joseph starts first women’s tefilla group in Canada

· 1983 Publication of Susannah Heschel’s On Being a Jewish Feminist; New York Get Law aims to help agunot using civil law (amended in 1992)

· 1984 Drisha Fellowship Program was created, the first full-time, fully-stipended kollel for women.

· 1985 Orthodox rabbis issue a ban on women’s tefilla groups, giving the groups tremendous publicity and spawning a dozen new groups; Women’s tefilla group in Jerusalem holds women’s tefilla groups with women reading Torah, hosted by Dvora Ross and organized by Pnina Peli

· 1986 Pnina Peli organizes the first conference on feminism and Orthodoxy, "The Woman and Judaism, The Woman and Halacha," in Jerusalem; Leah Shakdiel becomes first woman elected to the Religious Council in Israel, in Yeruham

· 1987 First minyan with women leading kabbalat Shabbat in Washington Heights Havurah

· 1988 Women of the Wall meet for the first time at the Western Wall

· 1989 First conference of the Women’s Tefillah Network in Riverdale, New York

· 1990 Israel chief rabbinate announces that women can serve as rabbinic pleaders (Toanot Rabbaniyot) in the Beit Din; Ohr Torah Stone responds by opening the first and only course to train women as rabbinic pleaders

· 1992 First Shabbaton in Bournemouth (UK) with Women's Tefillah Service. Stanmore Women’s Service (UK) cancelled due to London Beit Din and United Synagogue opposition. The first service was held in a private home in March 1993. The first Bat Mitzvah celebration in the Stanmore service was the following year; The Drisha Scholars Circle was formed, the first three-year fully-stipended kollel for women that trained women in both Talmud and the core halakhic areas that were traditionally studied in (male) semicha programs.

· 1993 Or Chadash, a minyan in Oak Park, Michigan, (US) quietly broke ground for women by enabling women to lead services and hold lay positions –President Susann Codish, Rabbi Eliezer Cohen;

· 1994 Reb Mimi Feigelson privately receives orthodox rabbinic ordination

· 1996 Massive conference on women in Judaism at Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem

· 1997 Establishment of JOFA, Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, in New York following massive conference in New York ; Establishment of OWN, Orthodox Women’s Network in Australia

· 1998 Establishment of Kolech, Religious Women’s Forum; Publication of anthology Jewish Legal Writings by Women, edited by Micah Halperin and Chana Safrai z"l; release of film Half the Kingdom, about Jewish Feminism, following the lives and work of Shulamit Aloni, Esther Broner, Elyse Goldstein, Naomi Goldenberg, Norma Baumel Joseph, Michele Landsberg, and Alice Shalvi.

· 1999 Canada (Ontario) passes Get Law to provide agunot with divorce leverage and prevent recalcitrant husbands from remarrying.

· 2000 Rabbi Evelyn Goodman-Tau receives orthodox ordination;

· 2000 Drisha's launches alternative High Holiday minyan in which women led parts of the service in “partnership minyan” style

· 2002 Establishment of partnership minyanim – Darkhei Noam in NYC and Shira Hadasha by Dr Tova Hartman in Jerusalem; First women’s megillah readings in the UK (outlawed by the London Beit Din)

· 2004 Rabbi Haviva Ner David receives orthodox ordination

· 2005 Shira Hadasha (“Shira”), first partnership minyan in Australia, formed in Melbourne by Dr Mark Baker following the bat mitzvah of Avigayil Sztokman, the first girl to have her bat mitzvah in a partnership style setting

· 2006 Rosh Kehilla Dina Najman becomes first woman to lead an Orthodox synagogue community

· 2008 Law of Division of Property reverses marital law in Israel, making it difficult for recalcitrant men to use the get for extortion

· 2009 Rabba Sara Hurwitz, newly ordained, opens up of Yeshivat Maharat, first Orthodox yeshivah to ordain women

· 2010 Establishment of Bat Kol, by Avigayil Sperber, first organization for Orthodox lesbians in Israel; First partnership minyan in the UK begins meeting

· 2012 Britain’s first Orthodox female halachic adviser at Finchley Synagogue in London; “Fadlachushiyot” Facebook group for religious feminists is formed, quickly reaching 8000 members and blasting open issues such as sexual abuse and mikvah; Malka Puterkovsky becomes first Orthodox trained Poseket (arbiter of halakha) in Israel

· 2012 First haredi women’s online feminist group established; KayamaMoms, first organization for religious single mother by choices, established by Dina Pinner, Dvora Ross, and Yael Ukeles (following the publication of Dvora Ross’ responsa on the subject in “Jewish Legal Writings by Women” in 1998)

· 2013 First graduating class of Yeshivat Maharat; Establishment of JOFA UK; Formation of five partnership minyanim in the UK; Three graduates are hired by orthodox synagogues in full time clerical positions; Dr Aliza Lavie becomes the first Orthodox feminist Knesset member

· 2014 First book of women poskot published

· 2014 Launch of haredi women’s political party in Israel , U’bezchutan; First woman (“yoetzet halacha”) hired by an Orthodox shul in the United States to rule on halakha, though the shul insists “it is not about feminism”

· TODAY:

2015 First public, institutional ordination of Orthodox women rabbis and poskot in Israel, in three different sponsoring organizations and cohorts.

Over 40 partnership minyanim around the world

11 graduates of Yeshivat Maharat and 10 more rabbis and poskot in Israel

Dozens of women working in quasi-rabbinic positions in Orthodox communities around the world

Women’s megillah readings and tefillah groups now held in synagogues around US Israel and UK with full rabbinic and communal approval

Elana Maryles Sztokman, PhD is the founding director of the Center for Jewish Feminism