By Rabbi Sara Rich

Life takes us in unexpected directions. Being installed as the first female rabbi in the history of Temple Beth Tzedek and its predecessor synagogues is an unexpected milestone in my life on nearly every level. The rabbi part is the least surprising, in that I decided to become a rabbi when I was 15 years old, and I followed that path from college to rabbinical school and then ordination in 2011. That aside, I began my career with Hillel after ordination (first at Princeton University, and then here at UB) and I did not have a plan as to when, or even if, I would serve in a congregation. I was ordained from a Reform rabbinical school, and over time found a more comfortable home in the Conservative movement. And, while Buffalo is an incredible place to live, the community does a great job of keeping that secret from the outside world, so I certainly didn’t know our family would end up here! I stand in awe of the positive surprises that life hands to us.

I do not think of my status as the first female rabbi on this pulpit as an achievement, so much as a milestone. I worked hard to become a rabbi: countless hours of studying, working in synagogues, religious schools, camp and in hospital rooms. But being born female was not an accomplishment on my part – that was very much handed to me! In the past, being ordained as a female rabbi was not an option, and when it was, the earliest female rabbis faced discrimination when looking for jobs and in their workplace settings. Thankfully, through their perseverance, with the support of male allies who were committed to an egalitarian rabbinate, and embracing an external culture of equity that has served women in all professions (with much work still to be done), I have never experienced my gender as a hurdle to overcome. 

But the same cannot be said for the girls and women of Temple Beth Tzedek’s history. After my hiring was announced last year, women came out of the woodwork to share their stories with me. I heard from one woman who was the first to hold the Torah on the bema (pulpit), another who could not celebrate her bat mitzvah during Shabbat services, despite her brother being granted that privilege. Women expressed regret that they never learned to read Torah, or simply shook their heads and said that they “never thought this day would come.” The moment that we have come to today in our community is one that could never have happened in past years, and it is one of many proof points that the synagogue’s values have evolved over time to balance the values of tradition and equality.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “The authentic individual is neither an end nor a beginning but a link between ages, both memory and expectation. Every moment is a new beginning within a continuum of history. It is fallacious to segregate a moment and not to sense its involvement in both past and future. Humbly the past defers to the future, but it refuses to be discarded. Only he who is an heir is qualified to be a pioneer.”

To the degree that I am I pioneer in this role, I am humbled to be an heiress to the past. This past includes Ray Frank, called “the girl rabbi of the Golden West” who served as a Jewish community leader, albeit without ordination, in 1890, and it includes Helen Levinthal, who completed the full course of study at the Hebrew Union College in 1939, but was not granted ordination because of her gender. This past that I inherit celebrates the ordination of the first female rabbi, Regina Jonas, in 1935 in Germany, the ordination in 1972 of the first American female rabbi, Sally Priesand, and the first female Conservative rabbi, Amy Eilberg, ordained in 1985. Throughout Jewish Buffalo today, I am honored to collaborate with a cadre of female leaders, as they boldly move our community forward.

I invite us all to consider: What meaningful aspects of our history do you inherit? What elements of the past, both personal and societal, have impacted who you are and what milestones have you been able to reach? And let us all consider together: What is the next frontier that we can traverse together? May we do so with vision, humility, and courage.
 

Rabbi Sara Rich is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Tzedek

We are pleased to share this beautiful piece that first appeared in the May/June issue of The Jewish Journal.  Rabbi Rich will be formally installed this weekend at Shabbat services at Temple Beth Tzedek.  For details, go to TBT’s websitebtzbuffalo.org.