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People On The Move - Rabbi Sally J. Priesand
04/26/2010 - By Teja Anderson
AMERICA’S FIRST FEMALE RABBI
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, with an organized Jewish population comparable in size to Monmouth County, Sally J. Priesand, always dreamed about being a teacher. When her favorite subject was English she wanted to be an English teacher, the next year a math teach, another year a French teacher. So, when at age 16 her favorite subject was Judaism she decided to be a (congregational) rabbi. Priesand was undaunted by the fact that there had only been one female rabbi before her; Regina Jonas, who was ordained privately in 1935 in Berlin. (She was deported to Auschwitz in October of 1944, then murdered two months later at the age of 42 during the Holocaust.) Luckily, Sally had the support of her parents. “My parents gave me the greatest gift that a parent can give a child; the courage to dare and dream,” Rabbi Priesand remembers.
Attending the Reform Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Rabbi Priesand remembers the allmale faculty and student body as being “fairly” accepting. Although, some of them didn’t really want to see a woman become a rabbi. Or, even suspected that she was really only there to find a husband! However, she had the support of college president Nelson Glueck, and upon graduation she became the first woman ordained as a rabbi in the United States, on June 3, 1972. All her colleagues and teachers spontaneously stood as her name was called; in a moment she became a pioneer for woman’s rights and helped transform contemporary Judaism. Currently over 1,000 women have become rabbis among the three denominations; Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative.
After graduation, Rabbi Priesand found a position as an assistant rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, leaving there in 1979 when it became clear that she would not be promoted to succeed the ailing senior rabbi. Unable to find a full-time position, she served as the part-time rabbi of Temple Beth El in Elizabeth, N.J., and as a Chaplain at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan from 1979 to 1981. Then, as luck would have it, she was offered a position as the senior rabbi here at Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls. Although many saw her as a woman’s rights icon and felt that she should seek ever larger pulpits, Rabbi Priesand remained at Monmouth Reform Temple for 25 years; from 1981 until her retirement in June of 2006 at age 60, leading the smaller congregation of just 365 families. “They taught me here that success doesn’t mean bigger, success means are you doing better today then you were yesterday? They allowed me always to be creative and to experiment and to recommend new things and so I stayed and we created a real bond,” Rabbi Priesand explains.
Rabbi Priesand made some other changes along the way. “About the outfit. Most rabbis wear a black robe. I didn’t like the black robe so I designed a royal blue robe during my last year of school. After I did that, all the rabbis at my school changed to blue. In fact, the senior rabbi, Rabbi Albert Goldman who passed away recently, his family wanted me to know that he was buried in his blue robe.” The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati has marked the anniversary of her ordination in five-year intervals since 1992, with academic conferences, an honorary doctorate of divinity and an endowed professorship named after her. Each year, the college includes Rabbi Priesand in its graduation class photo.
Although she has never married or had children, Rabbi Priesand has an eight-year-old Boston terrier named “Shadow” who is her faithful companion and the “king of my house.” “One of my first rules is, know yourself and be yourself. My original plan when I was ordained was to get married, have kids and have a nursery next to my study at the synagogue. I had it all worked out. But I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do both. The pull would be too great for me to be at home with my kids, and the job of rabbi really is a 24/7 job,” Rabbi Priesand reflects. “So I gave all my time to my ‘Temple Family’.” And she is still there giving, four years into her retirement.
STATS
FAVORITE RESTAURANT
Pete & Elda’s, Neptune
FAVORITE MUSICIAN
Bette Midler
FAVORITE MOVIE
“Beaches”
PET PEEVE
“Calling Reform Judaism ‘Reformed’; it is not in the past tense, we are still in the process of reforming.”
THREE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH
Poet Emma Lazarus, Katherine Hepburn, and John F. Kennedy
Do you know a “Person on the Move” in Colts Neck, Marlboro, Holmdel, or the Jersey Shore? Send an e-mail with a brief description to info@livinginmedia.com
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