Week of May 12

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May 12, 1985

Amy Eilberg ordained as first female Conservative rabbi

May 13, 1953

Gladys Heldman launches "World Tennis Magazine"

May 14, 2004

Mayyim Hayyim, a progressive community mikveh, opens

May 15, 1895

Birth of Judaica librarian Fanny Goldstein

May 16, 1999

Angela Warnick Buchdahl invested as first Asian-American cantor

May 17, 1874

Yiddish theatre star Bertha Kalich born

May 18, 1921

Lily Winner publishes a defense of open immigration in the "The Nation"

May 18, 2008

Jane Eisner Appointed First Female Editor of the "Forward"

 

May 12, 1985

Amy Eilberg ordained as first female Conservative rabbi

Amy Eilberg's ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS)'s commencement ceremony on May 12, 1985, made her the first woman rabbi in the Conservative movement.

Although the Reform movement began ordaining women in 1972, Eilberg's ordination followed a long struggle within the Conservative movement. Eilberg had been enrolled at JTS as a student of Talmud when the school's faculty voted, on October 24, 1983, to admit women to the rabbinical program. Eilberg enrolled as a rabbinical student in the fall of 1984.

Eilberg's first rabbinic position was as a chaplain at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. In the 21 years since her ordination, she has remained involved in issues of health care, becoming a national leader in the Jewish healing movement. She was a co-founder of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, and directed the Center's Jewish Hospice Care program. Eilberg now teaches spiritual direction and conflict resolution and creates Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue programs in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Although she is not a pulpit rabbi, Eilberg has remained involved in some of the central concerns of the Conservative movement. In 1988, she contributed new rituals for women and couples grieving after miscarriage or abortion to an updated edition of the Conservative movement's rabbinic manual, Moreh Derekh. She has also written a ritual for women healing from sexual violence.

At a program held at the Jewish Theological Seminary in April, 2005, Eilberg noted that although JTS has ordained more than 150 women since 1985, female rabbis still face special challenges, including the competing demands of family and work.

See also: This Week in History for October 24, 1983.

Sources: New York Times, February 17, 1985; May 13, 1985; http://my.brandeis.edu/profiles/one-profile?profile_id=1037; The Jewish Week, April 8, 2005; Beth S. Wenger, "The Politics of Women's Ordination: Jewish Law, Institutional Power and the Debate over Women in the Rabbinate," in Jack Wertheimer, ed., Tradition Renewed: A History of the Jewish Theological Seminary (New York, 1997), pp. 485-523; The Jewish Week, November 20, 1988; J.: The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, January 17, 2003; Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution, http://www.jwa.org/feminism/index.html?id=JWA020.

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May 13, 1953

Gladys Heldman launches "World Tennis Magazine"

Tennis player, promoter, and women's advocate Gladys Heldman released the first issue of World Tennis Magazine on May 13, 1953. Heldman began playing tennis after the birth of her two daughters and went on to rank #1 in Texas and #2 in the Southwest in addition to playing at Wimbledon in 1954. Heldman is most celebrated, however, for her work promoting women's equal status in the tennis world. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Heldman used her magazine to push for equal coverage and opportunity for female tennis players. She was also a consistent advocate for athletes in general against the criticism of tournament organizers and the mainstream media. Heldman's writing and advocacy were honored with the J.P. Allen Memorial Award of the Lawn Tennis Writers' Association of America in 1958.

In 1970, fed up with the disparity in prize money for men and women, Heldman organized independent tournaments in competition with the U.S. Open. She went on to form the Virginia Slims Tour for professional women tennis players. Women were initially punished for competing in Heldman-sponsored events, but after three years of lawsuits and negotiations, the Virginia Slims Tour finally merged with the United States Lawn Tennis Association and, in 1973, men and women began playing in the same events for equal prizes. The struggle for equal pay continued, however. Only in 2007 did Wimbeldon agree to offer equal prize money to men and women.

Heldman retired in the mid 1970s, selling World Tennis Magazine to CBS. In 1979, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame as well as the National Tennis Hall of Fame. Heldman died in 2003 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sources: http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=tennis&ID=21; http://www.tennisfame.com/famer.aspx?pgID=867&hof_id=143; http://www.wm.edu/tenniscenter/heldmanobit.html; New York Times, February 13, 1958; March 26, 1961; August 15, 1972; Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 615-618.

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May 14, 2004

Mayyim Hayyim, a progressive community mikveh, opens

Mayyim Hayyim, a community mikveh [ritual bath] and education center in Newton, Massachusetts, opened its doors on May 14, 2004. The opening was the culmination of over three years of work by a committed group of Boston-area women led by author Anita Diamant. Mayyim Hayyim, whose name means "living waters," adopted the following mission statement: "To reclaim and reinvent one of our most ancient Jewish rituals – immersion in the mikveh – for contemporary spiritual uses and to make this new, sacred space open and accessible to all Jews in the Greater Boston area."

In opening the community mikveh, the Mayyim Hayyim founders joined a growing movement among non-Orthodox American Jews to reclaim the mikveh for new uses. Traditionally, married women are required to immerse in the mikveh after each menstrual period, while men may immerse each week in preparation for Shabbat and also before holidays. Immersion also forms a central part of the conversion ceremony. The mikveh ritual was long rejected by feminist Jews because of its association with the laws of family purity (taharat hamishpacha), which suggest that a menstruating woman is "unclean." However, in the 1990s, women began to find new meanings and uses for mikveh, creating rituals for healing after divorce, rape, or abuse; to mark milestones such as major birthdays and graduations; and to mark the end of difficult events or stages such as chemotherapy, miscarriage, or bereavement.

Mayyim Hayyim was designed to be used for these newer rituals as well as for traditional monthly and weekly immersions. Constructed to meet traditional standards of halacha (Jewish law), it was also designed to be, in Diamant's words, "a mikveh that is beautiful in design and decoration, a welcoming and inviting place." It is also meant to be accessible to individuals with disabilities, with one of the two immersion pools featuring a wheelchair lift. Although other mikvaot (plural of mikveh) exist in the Boston area, Mayyim Hayyim is the first that is not connected to an Orthodox authority; for this reason, it is more accessible to women who may not feel comfortable using – or may not be able to gain access to – an Orthodox-affiliated mikveh for a non-traditional purpose.

In addition to reclaiming and reinventing the mikveh, Mayyim Hayyim seeks to fulfill its mission through a variety of educational programs. By January of 2004, before the building even opened, Mayyim Hayyim estimated that its education programs had reached about 1,000 people. Since the opening of its building, the organization has sponsored art exhibits and public programs to engage the community. To mark its first anniversary, the group staged a performance of "Mikveh Monologues," modeled after Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," and featuring the stories of mikveh users. The script was written by Diamant and Janet Buchwald. Diamant noted in an interview that despite the seemingly narrow focus of the topic, "all religious rituals use water as a metaphor for change and transformation and purification...there's a potential for universal appeal." "Mikveh Monologues II," presented in March 2006, raised $200,000 for Mayyim Hayyim.

See also: This Week in History for October 1, 1997 (for Anita Diamant).

Sources: http://www.mayyimhayyim.org; The Forward, March 11, 2005; Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 25, 2001; The Jewish Advocate, January 29, 2004.

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May 15, 1895

Birth of Judaica librarian Fanny Goldstein

Born on May 15, 1895 [some sources say 1888], Fanny Goldstein devoted her life to books and community. She was the first female Judaica librarian and the first woman to direct a branch library in Massachusetts, where she was head of Boston's West End Branch for many years. A prominent figure in the Boston Jewish community, she is best known as the founder of Jewish Book Week, which began when Goldstein organized a display of Jewish books at the Boston Public Library in 1925. Goldstein worked tirelessly to bring authors to participate in Jewish Book Week in Boston and to export the concept to other cities.

The West End Branch Library under Goldstein addressed the needs of the diverse ethnic populations (especially Italian, African-American, and Jewish) of Boston's West End. Goldstein created programs and collected books that appealed to each of the community's populations and which brought them together as one community. The West End Branch, which she directed from 1922 to 1957, offered a model of the public library as community center.

Goldstein served as the first chairman for National Jewish Book Week, sponsored under the auspices of the Jewish Welfare Board (JWB), in 1940. The national effort was designed to increase awareness of American Jewish literature. The JWB sponsored exhibits and discussions across the country during the designated week each year. The Week took on new meaning, and new urgency, during World War II when the JWB recast it as a response to the persecution of European Jewry. In 1941, the chairman of the National Jewish Book Week committee told the New York Times that one of the goals of the Week was "to cultivate and strengthen our internal life, so as to be in a position later on to reciprocate fully by aiding European Jewries to replenish their depleted resources."

Goldstein compiled significant and pioneering bibliographies in Judaica, including what was probably the first bibliography on books about Jewish women. In 1947, Goldstein published The Jewish Child in Bookland: A Selected Bibliography of Juveniles for the Jewish Child's Own Bookshelf, a Jewish-themed reading list for children. In Boston, she maintained an extensive archive of book reviews, photographs, pamphlets, and correspondence related to Judaic topics. In Spring 2004, the Boston Public Library exhibited selections from this archive together with materials documenting Goldstein's career as part of a series of special events, organized with the Jewish Women's Archive, celebrating 350 years of Jewish communal life in North America.

Today, Jewish Book Week has become Jewish Book Month, celebrated each November with exhibits, lectures, and discussion groups in synagogues, schools, libraries, and Jewish Community Centers across the country.

Sources: http://www.bpl.org/research/special/collections.htm#g; New York Times, November 24, 1941; May 23, 1946; Fanny Goldstein, The Jewish Child in Bookland: A Selected Bibliography of Juveniles for the Jewish Child's Own Bookshelf (New York: Jewish Book Council of America, 1947); Fanny Goldstein Papers, MS-205, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati.

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May 16, 1999

Angela Warnick Buchdahl invested as first Asian-American cantor

Growing up in Tacoma, Washington, Angela Warnick Buchdahl was both an outsider and an insider in the local Jewish community. Her paternal grandparents were founding members of the local Reform synagogue, but as the daughter of a Korean mother, Angela and her sister were the only biracial Jews they knew. A summer in Israel with the Bronfman Youth Fellowship, where Buchdahl's roommate was an Orthodox Jew, caused her to question her own Jewish identity. Although she briefly considered leaving Judaism, she ultimately decided to make her career in the Jewish community.

After graduating from Yale, Buchdahl enrolled at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where she was invested as a cantor on May 16, 1999. At HUC-JIR's investiture ceremony, Buchdahl became the first Asian American cantor. Just two years later, she made history again with ordination from HUC-JIR, becoming the first Asian American rabbi. Buchdahl served as associate rabbi and cantor at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York, and currently serves as cantor of Central Synagogue in New York City. She has published several articles reflecting on her position as a Korean-American Jew, including one titled "Kimchee on the Seder Plate," which recounts the blending of Korean and Jewish culture in her parents' home. In an interview with Reform Judaism magazine, Buchdahl said that although she does not believe that her Korean heritage defines her rabbinical work, she "might have a role to play in helping to change people's perceptions of who is a rabbi, a cantor, or a Jew."

Sources: http://www.shma.com/june03/Angela.htm; www.centralsynagogue.org; Debbie Slevin, “If Wise Could See Us Now,” Reform Judaism, Fall 2000.

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May 17, 1874

Yiddish theatre star Bertha Kalich born

Bertha Kalich, star of American Yiddish theatre, was born on May 17, 1874 [some sources say 1872 or 1875]. Raised in Lemberg, then part of Austria-Hungary, Kalich studied at the Lemberg Conservatory and joined the chorus of the local Polish theater at thirteen. She also performed in German, and later learned Romanian for a stint at the Romanian Imperial Theatre in Bucharest. Her success there put to rest, at least temporarily, fears that anti-Semitism would hinder her budding career. A story was later told that audience members had brought onions to pelt her with, but were so entranced that they threw flowers instead. The story may be apocryphal, but Kalich’s success was real. The acclaim that greeted her Romanian performances was enough to catch the eye of American producers, who brought Kalich to the U.S. in 1894.

In New York, Kalich performed mainly at Joseph Edelstein’s Thalia Theatre, where she starred as Desdemona in Othello, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and in A Doll’s House, all in Yiddish translation. Through these plays and others, Kalich sought to make her name as an actress rather than emphasizing the musical talents that had given her a start in Yiddish theatre. She also sought to raise the artistic standards of Yiddish theatre, emphasizing serious plays. She soon became a leading lady of American Yiddish theatre, and playwright Jacob Gordin wrote at least two roles especially for her: Etty in The Kreutzer Sonata and the title role in Sappho.

In 1905, Kalich made her debut on the English-language stage, in the title role of Victorien Sardou’s Fédora. A reviewer for the New York Times lauded her “remarkable emotional power” and “tremendous natural force,” but also criticized her performance as lacking in subtlety. The opening night audience, however, responded with a standing ovation and nearly a dozen curtain calls. She was one of just a few actresses to transition successfully from Yiddish to English theatre. Kalich continued to appear in English roles for another decade, but her emotional style gradually fell out of favor for the light American theatre then in vogue. She did, however, appear in revivals of roles she had first performed in Yiddish, and also in several early films. By 1915, she was returning more and more frequently to the Yiddish stage, in Philadelphia and Chicago as well as New York. In Yiddish theatre circles, her performances in English only enhanced her prestige. In turn, her success on the English-language stage helped raise the status of the Yiddish theatre.

Kalich retired from the theatre in 1931, having gradually lost her sight to a malignant eye tumor. Unable to give up theatre entirely, she appeared occasionally even after her retirement, including in several productions mounted for her benefit. Her last appearance was in a staging of Louis Untermeyer’s poem “Heine’s Death” at the Jolson theatre, in February, 1939. She died in New York just a few months later, on April 18, 1939. Her New York Times obituary estimated that she had performed some 125 roles in seven languages.

Sources: Jewish Women in America, 715-717; New York Times, May 23, 1905, April 19, 1939.

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May 18, 1921

Lily Winner publishes a defense of open immigration in the "The Nation"

The May 18, 1921, issue of The Nation included an essay by Lily Winner entitled "American Emigrés." The article asked, "why has America the 'melting-pot' failed to Americanize? Why is Congress, in its hysterical weathervane fashion, passing bills to restrict immigration when, by casual inquiry, it could ascertain that the margin between arrivals of new people and departure of old, is so slight as not to fill the hearts of employing capital with boundless joy?" Winner explained that while American businesses were eager for the cheap labor of immigrants, these workers found little welcome in American society. She condemned the lack of programs to teach American manners and values, and lamented the frequent return of immigrants who, American capital in hand, could begin new lives back in their homelands. Today her essay seems to combine a still timely critique with intolerant ethnocentrism. In fact, Winner's concern for the maltreatment of immigrants in American cities placed her among the progressive voices of her time.

Immigration was only one of the causes dear to Winner's heart. In addition to urging acculturation of foreigners, she became deeply involved in the birth control movement, writing frequent articles for Margaret Sanger's Birth Control Review. The Review, considered radical in its day, was "dedicated to the principal of intelligent and voluntary motherhood." Winner's essays, like others in the magazine, called for the emancipation of women and their right to control their own fertility on the grounds that such control would make them better mothers of the children they chose to bear. Winner also wrote frequently for a Jewish periodical, The Modern View. Displaying the breadth of her writing talents, her pieces in the View were mainly stories that spoke to the temptations and challenges of assimilation but which usually ended with the heroine's recommitment to Jewish ritual and values.

By the time Winner gained her by-line in these diverse publications, she had already made a name for herself as a playwright. In 1915, while still a 24-year-old stenographer in Missouri, where she was born and raised, Winner co-wrote The Crutch, which was accepted in that year by the Shuberts, who planned to stage it with actor Louis Mann in the starring role. Winner went on to work not only as a writer for niche publications but also as a globetrotting journalist. She wrote about the medieval cities of Germany, royal ghosts in England, and her 1924 meeting with the Pope. She also worked for a time as the advertising manager of the Perry Photo Novelty Corporation. At a time when white middle-class American women were just beginning to take on public roles as reformers and workers in significant numbers, Winner carved out an uncommon career that brought her travel, adventure, and income.

Sources: Lily Winner Scrapbook, 1915-1924, copy at the Jewish Women's Archive, recompiled by Helene Weitzenkorn, July 2004.

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May 18, 2008

Jane Eisner Appointed First Female Editor of the "Forward"

Jane Eisner, a veteran journalist with a long history of "firsts," was appointed to be the first female editor of the Forward on May 18, 2008. Published in New York for a national readership, the Forward is the country's oldest and largest Jewish newspaper. Founded as a Yiddish language daily in 1897, it added an English edition in 1983.

Over the course of her long career, Eisner has broken many barriers. In 1976, she became the first female editor of the Wesleyan University paper. During her 25-year-long tenure with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Eisner was the first female City Hall bureau chief, the first mother to be a foreign correspondent (she worked in London), and the first female editorial page editor. Before being named editor of the Forward, Eisner served as vice-president for national programs and initiatives at the National Constitution Center, based in Philadelphia.

Eisner's interests have long focused on constitutional issues and values, engaging youth in the democratic process, and the evolution of marriage, child-rearing, and education in the United States. In 2004, she published Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in Our Democracy.

The Forward has historically been regarded as a progressive, left-leaning newspaper with a strong focus on social issues, a legacy for which Eisner expressed enthusiasm. "I feel very strongly about the underlying values of social justice and equality that are really a part of the history here from the very beginning, and I admire that tremendously," she said. "I think that there was a real activist role that the Forward played in the community in its heyday and I think that could be again."

Source: "Eisner Breaks Glass Stelya at Jewish Forward," www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3655.

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