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For a pioneer, Washington's Modern Orthodox community is getting crowded. Not only are there plenty of rabbis and thriving congregations, there are two women clergy who broke the Orthodox gender barrier by becoming authorities in Jewish law at established congregations. Last month, one of those women announced she was going to light out for the territory.
The wild frontier for Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter, who for two years has been assistant spiritual leader of Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, is Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, she said, is not Washington, where she grew up. It's also not New York, where she was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat, and which has its share of Orthodox institutions, scholars and congregations.
For Fruchter, 28, Philadelphia may be just right for starting her own gender-inclusive Orthodox congregation. If she does, she'll be only the second Orthodox woman to do so.
"A lot of people from my New York days are moving [to Philadelphia] now; folks from D.C. are moving there now," said Fruchter. "There's a lot of rich Jewish life, and not many of my colleagues from Yeshivat Maharat are there. ... I just saw that there was an opportunity to grow something beautiful, and I'm excited to see how that lands."
It's a risk, she admitted in an interview last week at Beth Sholom. She's been back...