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WOMEN HAVE BEEN ORDAINED AS RABBIS IN THE United States since 1972. At first, women rabbis were considered a novel idea. Today, they are widely found in Jewish institutional life.2 Through their congregational- and organizational-centered leadership, their scholarship, and their unique approach as women, they are influencing Judaism in significant ways.
Although at times their effect is noted in books and articles in the general and the Jewish press,3 little attention is paid to their portrayal in fiction. This article explores the extant examples of fictional "women-rabbi-centered" works.4 It considers the depiction of women rabbis and frames it in the context of an analysis of women rabbis developed by Rabbi Janet Marder, the first woman to serve as president of the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis, from 2OO3-20O5.5
Although women rabbis appeared earlier, Rabbi Lynda Klein broke through the fictional rabbinic glass ceiling in 1983 (Rhonda Shapiro-Rieser's A Place of Light). In time, other women joined this select sisterhood. In 1987, Rabbi Sara Weintraub made her appearance (Alex J. Goldman's The Rabbi is a Lady). That same year, Rabbi Myra Wahl debuted (Joseph Telushkin's The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl). In the iggos, Rabbi Deborah Luria (Erich Segal, Acts of Faith, 1992) was followed by Rabbi Gabrielle Lewyn (Roger Herst, Woman of the Cloth, 1998). The 2ist century introduced Rabbi Michelle Hertz (Anita Diamant, Good Harbor, 2001), Rabbi Ruth Gold (Athol Dickson, They Shall see God, 2002), Rabbi Deborah Green (Jonathan Rosen, Joy Comes in the Morning, 2004), and Rabbi Rebecca Nachman (Julius Lester, The Autobiography of God, 2004). In the 19905, there also were a couple of short stories that featured women rabbis as important figures. The first was Rabbi Marion Bloomgarten (Eileen Pollack, "The Rabbi in the Attic," The Rabbi in the Attic and Other Stories, 1991), followed by Rabbi Sarah Pollack ("Here and Now," Glenn and Jeanne Gillette and David J. Zucker, 1996).7
"Women rabbis have changed the face of Judaism," explains Laura Geller, the senior rabbi at Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills, Calif., through their presence and through their influence.8 Indeed, they have changed the rabbinate itself.9
As Jonathan Sarna, a historian at Brandeis University, notes, the "emergence of women rabbis in Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism both symbolized and...