by Rebecca Honig Friedman

Rabba Sara Hurwitz was never denied membership in the Rabbinic International Fellowship, contrary to the assertions of a recent NY Jewish Week article.
Rabbi Marc D. Angel, the co-founder of the IRF, confirmed via email that the Jewish Week article got it wrong, and that the IRF will “quite likely” accept women in the near future. From Rabbi Angel’s email:

The article in the Jewish Week has a number of falsehoods, including the comment that Sarah Hurwitz was denied membership in the IRF. The IRF was established as an Orthodox rabbinic association, and by definition Orthodox rabbis have been male. At the spring conference of the IRF, we discussed at great length whether to admit qualified women, even if they do not have formal rabbinic ordination. The general consensus was that we should, and a committee was appointed to come up with a specific resolution with guidelines for eligibility for membership. This resolution is to be brought to the IRF’s convention in June. It is quite likely that women will then be eligible for membership, and Sarah (and possibly other [women]) will then be able to apply for membership and be accepted as members.

See full post on TJC Newsdesk.

Posted on March 2nd, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized |