Judaism-Conservative

Judith Wolf

Project

Women Who Dared

Julie Johnson interviewed Judith Wolf on February 23, 2005, in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of the Women Who Dared Oral History Project. Wolf reflects on her Jewish upbringing, volunteer work, religious schooling, and efforts to establish educational resources for disabled children in Ukraine, emphasizing the role of women and Jewish values in her life.

Steven Winkler

Project

Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Steven Winkler on November 28, 2006, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Winkler details his Jewish upbringing in Georgia, his career as a hospital administrator, and his involvement in the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, emphasizing his dedication to healthcare and community service.

Nathan Rothstein

Project

Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Nathan Rothstein on July 22, 2007, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Rothstein talks about his family history, parents, Jewish upbringing, his experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, his work with nonprofit organizations, and his efforts to foster interfaith collaboration in the city, providing insights on race and the Jewish community.

Mark Samuels

Project

Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Mark Samuels on August 2, 2007, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Samuels discusses his childhood, love for music, his wife's death, the impact on his Jewish community involvement, evacuation from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, rebuilding his business, and his positive outlook for the future of the city.

Mark Schleifstein

Project

Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Mark Schleifstein on December 10, 2006, in Metairie, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Schleifstein talks about advocating for hurricane preparedness, experiencing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and struggling to reconcile his faith in science and belief in God while finding solace in the unity of the Jewish community.

Joel Brown

Project

Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Joel Brown on October 23, 2006, in Metairie, Louisiana, as part of Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Brown explains his family background, education, Jewish upbringing, opening a kosher restaurant in New Orleans, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on his business and life, the support from the Memphis Jewish community, and his hopeful return to New Orleans.

Agunot

Agunot are women who are unable to obtain a rabbinic divorce because their husbands or husbands’ male next of kin are unable to give one, leaving them chained in marital captivity. Although many efforts have been made to address these problems, for those most part agunot in halakhically observant communities continue to face deep-seated challenges.

Sally Gottesman

Sally Gottesman, born 1962 in New Jersey and residing in New York, is a non-profit entrepreneur whose leadership and philanthropy have had a major impact on the Jewish feminist and justice landscape.

Martha Ackelsberg

Martha Ackelsberg is a Jewish feminist lesbian anarchist activist, community leader, and academic. She is a leading scholar of anarchism and of anarchist women’s organizations of the Spanish Civil War. A founder and/or early leading visionary in pivotal United States Jewish developments, Ackelsberg has been a key voice shaping feminist, lesbian, and havurah contributions to twentieth- and twenty-first century Jewish life.

Pro-Choice Demonstrators Outside the Supreme Court in 1989, Washington DC

January 4, 2021

How Blu Greenberg Helped Me Form My Views on Abortion as a Conservative Jewish Woman

Dodie Altman-Sagan

I identified with Blu Greenberg’s stance, as I read it: even if I wouldn’t have an abortion myself, it’s still a valid decision for other women to make.

Topics: Reproductive Rights, Judaism-Conservative

Julie Schonfeld

As the first female executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the professional organization for Conservative rabbis, Julie Schonfeld has helped shape the Conservative movement’s approach to prayer as well as its response to world politics.

Avis Miller

As someone who came to the rabbinate later in life, Avis Miller has searched for new ways to educate and engage those on the margins of the Jewish community.

Nina Bieber Feinstein

Nina Bieber Feinstein spent years laying the groundwork for women’s ordination before becoming the second woman rabbi ordained by the Conservative Movement.

Susan Grossman

Rabbi Susan Grossman has helped shape the Conservative Movement’s policies on women’s rights and roles in Jewish life through her work as a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS).

Nina Feinstein

Although she was the second woman ordained by the Conservative Movement, Rabbi Nina Bieber Feinstein helped lay the groundwork for women’s ordination through her own years of study and struggle.

Sally Gottesman's Bat Mitzvah Invitation, 1975

Taking Risks, Making Change: Bat Mitzvah and Other Evolving Traditions

The letters from one girl's campaign to have the first Saturday morning Bat Mitzvah in her congregation in 1974 serve as a case study for exploring how we confront controversial issues and make change in our communities.

February 19, 2016

Come, Join Us

Hani Fish-Bieler

I remember my excitement upon hearing about Yeshivat Maharat’s ordination of women. As a supporter of female Jewish leadership in all of its forms, I was thrilled at the idea. Evidently, Jessica Cavanagh-Melhado, a contributor to JWA’s blog, felt the same way. In June 2013, she wrote a piece entitled, We Begin to Become a Multitude. In the piece, she describes her experience attending the first ever ordination of women as open Orthodox female spiritual leaders.

Topics: Jewish Law, Rabbis, Judaism-Conservative, Judaism-Orthodox