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It is difficult to know how far the conflict over Orthodox women rabbis in America will go but the battle lines were drawn more sharply over the past week.
The mainstream Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America condemned the ordination of women, whether they go by the title of rabbi or not, while Agudath Israel branded “Open Orthodoxy”, in effect, a heretical movement.
“Open Orthodoxy” refers to a group of institutions linked to Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale, among them Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the most modern of modern Orthodox rabbinic schools, and Yeshivat Maharat, the first institution in America to ordain Orthodox women as spiritual leaders.
To appease the RCA, Rabbi Weiss initially agreed to call its first graduates “maharat”, a new-minted term meaning halachic, spiritual and Torah leader. To most people, it was only a pretence – they were rabbis in all but name, even if they were never going to be pulpit rabbis in the traditional sense. But the fragile compromise has crumbled and some of the newly ordained women have chosen the pre-maharat title of “rabba” and in one case “rabbi”.
According to a resolution passed by the RCA last week, its members may not “ordain women into the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title used; hire or ratify the hiring of a woman into a rabbinic position at an Orthodox institution; or allow a title implying rabbinic ordination to be used by a teacher of limmudei kodesh [Jewish studies] in an Orthodox institution”.
The rabbinic authorities of the Charedi Agudath Israel went further, saying that Open Orthodox institutions “reject the basic tenets of our faith” and that it would not recognise its rabbis as rabbis.
A number of British students have studied at YCT - one of them was recently appointed to a top rabbinic post in Australia.
In response, an online petition, launched on change.org, is gathering international support – more than 2,300 signatures at the last count – in support of training Orthodox women as “ halachic and spiritual leaders and clergy”.
America is a big place and far less centralised than, for example, British Jewry. A growing number of Orthodox congregations will simply defy the RCA and appoint women in leadership roles as they see fit.
The ripples, of course, will be felt worldwide. Back here, the recruitment of one Yeshivat Maharat student to a part-time educational post in one Orthodox synagogue has caused consternation within the United Synagogue rabbinate.
If that is the case now, the immediate prospects of employment for any maharat, rabba or female rabbi in an Orthodox school, never mind shul, in the UK would not look promising.
And will anyone associated with Yeshivat Maharat or any “Open Orthodox” institution now find the door shut in their face?