In honor of WRJ’s Centennial Celebration, HUC-JIR students were invited to submit a 1000 word original essay for the WRJ/HUC-JIR Essay Competition on the topic, “Celebrating Our Journeys: My Spiritual Path to Reform Jewish Leadership.” WRJ received dozens of moving, well-written essays from each of the four HUC-JIR campuses and degree programs. The decision was difficult, but a dedicated committee of WRJ staff, lay leaders, HUC-JIR alumni, and HUC-JIR faculty chose this essay as the competition winner.

Gilda Radner once said, “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.”

WRJ Centennial Chair Rosanne M. Selfon presents HUC-JIR student Jodie Gordon with her award.

Beginnings
The faded yellow paper, with the hand-drawn picture of a butterfly surprised me. “Produced by Mrs. Louis N. Gordon”, it read – noting my grandmother’s role as president of the Sisterhood at my home synagogue, Central Synagogue of Nassau County, New York. The mimeographed program of their production of “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” was from 1967-thirteen years before I was born. It is to that program that I trace the roots of my spiritual path to Reform Jewish leadership.

I asked her about that program – why didn’t it say “Ruth J. Gordon”?

“It was a different time”, she told me, so many years later.
“It’s different now,” she said, with a smile on her lips.

She was a college graduate, the founding editor of a nationally syndicated magazine – but, in her synagogue life, she was a wife – Mrs. Insert-My-Grandfathers’-Name-Here-Gordon. I was probably sixteen when I first looked at that program. I had just been elected the Religious and Cultural Vice President of my NFTY region. For me, it just didn’t add up. I felt the initial stirrings of my own feminism in that moment. At the time, I didn’t appreciate the significance of her explanation. But in retrospect, I know she was telling me how far we had come as a movement, and to “keep going”.

Middles
I used to keep a journal, from the time I was 17, until I was 28. These journals span from my senior year in high school, to my year in Israel as a first year student at HUC-JIR. In 2008, while still working at Ma’yan: The Jewish Women’s Project, I staffed a Birthright Israel trip. Sitting in the Kinneret Cemetery, I wrote the following entry:

Our guide said something that I can’t forget: “If you have already found something that makes you excited to jump off the haystack each morning- great. If you know what it is, then reach for it. Reality is overrated. Don’t give up your dream. Change your reality”. Must get back here. Learn Hebrew. Become a rabbi.

I remember sitting in the stone encircled plaza at the cemetery, thoroughly moved by the stories our guide had told of the young chalutzim who had come to Israel during the first Aliyah and made their home near the Kinneret. The imagery of the teenaged pioneers, so dedicated to their endeavor that they literally jumped off the haystacks on which they slept each morning, was powerful to me. That week in Israel, I had been feeling the stirrings of something inside me. I loved my work at Ma’yan; I loved thinking about how feminism might shape the future generations of young Jews. But, as I sat there with the eucalyptus-scented breeze coming off the water, near the graves of the poetess Rachel Bluwstein and Naomi Shemer, I felt pulled. I felt the gravity of the evolving story of the Jewish people, and I knew that I wanted to play a role in shaping that story.

And so I did, just as I made myself promise that I would in that journal entry from 2008: I returned from that trip to Israel, and spent a summer in an intensive Ulpan every night after work. I applied to HUC-JIR in the Fall of 2008, and on July 1, 2009, I ‘got back’ there as I began the Year in Israel program at HUC in Jerusalem.

When the poem doesn’t rhyme
I’m sitting in an orange quilted chair in a windowless room on the 3^rd floor at HUC in New York. She tells me to close my eyes and just sit quietly. The moment my eyes close, they are flooded with hot tears. It’s my first day back at school in over a week, and I am meeting with my spiritual director, Rabbi Yael Levy. The last time we met, I spoke with her about the sense of awe I felt at being pregnant. Now, we meet and that is over and there are no words. She sits quietly with me. As I have so often since the moment I heard the words “there is no heartbeat”, I keep my eyes closed. She is talking, but I don’t hear her, really. My disquieted mind finally settles, soothing itself with a song:

Ozi v’zimrat Yah, va’yehi li lishua.
My strength, with the Song of God, will be my salvation.

From Rabbi Levy, I have learned the power of having a spiritual mantra- or a touchstone text to which I return. These words resonate deeply for me. They live in my heart, and often come to mind in moments when I feel my strength falter. These words come to mind when I find myself trying to ‘make sense’ of the struggle or, to borrow from the words of Rabbi Rachel Adler, to “wrestle it for a blessing”. What blessing can I find in loss? Perhaps it is this: a sense of God’s presence in my life, even when the “poem doesn’t rhyme,” or a beginning feels more like an ending.

Delicious Ambiguity
As I have learned from these experiences, and as I expect I will continue to learn throughout my life: sometimes the perfect ending doesn’t look as you expected. For me, my spiritual journey has been one of ‘delicious ambiguity’. I have learned as much from the experiences and relationships that have nourished me, as from the ones that have challenged me. As I anticipate my ordination next year, these are the offerings of my soul that I will take with me as I continue the journey.

Jodie Gordon is going into her final year of the rabbinical program at HUC-JIR in New York, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Joshua Bloom, who is the Director of Israel Programs for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. Originally from Rockville Centre, NY, Jodie grew up at Central Synagogue of Nassau County, and spent ten summers at URJ Eisner Camp. Jodie graduated from Brandeis University, where she majored in Sociology and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Before beginning her rabbinical studies, Jodie’s professional experience included work for Hillel at the University of Wisconsin, The JCC in Manhattan, and Ma’yan: Listen for a Change. As a rabbinical student, Jodie has served as the Reform Rabbinic Fellow at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life at NYU and has been very involved with American Jewish World Service after traveling to Senegal as part of their Rabbinical Student Delegation in 2011. Jodie is also a proud recipient of the Tisch Rabbinical Fellowship. Jodie is thrilled to currently be the Rabbinic Intern at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington, MA.

New Yorkers, the time is now to lift up your voices together and call your state Senator and tell them that you support the New York Women’s Equality Act. Along with others across the state, tell the state Senate that you demand strengthened policies to support women as equal members of society as consistent with our American and Jewish values.

Dial 1-888-897-0174 or text “WEA” or “womensequality” to 877-877 to hear key points and automatically connect to your state Senator.

Today, women in New York face challenges that can prevent them from being contributing fully to society. Women are victims of wage discrimination in the workplace, face restricted access to reproductive health care services, endure family status and pregnancy discrimination and are more likely to be victims of human trafficking.

Call your state Senator and urge them to support the Women’s Equality Act that includes provisions to:

Protect reproductive health care services to ensure that every woman is able to decide what is best for her and her family, including using contraception, having a child or ending a pregnancy when her health or life is in danger. Currently, New York law only permits a woman to seek an abortion in the third trimester if her life is deemed in danger, which remains inconsistent with federal law as interpreted by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade. This provision seeks to align state law and medical practices with existing federal statute and standards.

Achieve of pay equality for women in New York who earn on average 84% of what men earn statewide. The median full salary for women in New York is $41,570, while the median full time for men is $50,228 a year. The provision will strengthen existing laws prohibiting wage discrimination and will bar employers from terminating or retaliating against employees who share information about their wages. The prohibition of sharing wage information is how pay disparities are perpetuated.

Encourage your Senator to support this bill to hold up women as equal contributors in all aspects of life across New York State.

Our tradition teaches that all life is sacred and that although an unborn fetus is precious and to be protected, Judaism views the life and well-being of the mother as paramount, placing a higher value on existing life than on potential life. We are also instructed to recognize the importance of paying fair wages, as commanded in Leviticus to “not defraud your neighbor, nor rob him; the wages of he who is hired shall not remain with you all night until the morning.”

Now is the time to turn our tradition into action. Call you Senator at 888-897-0174 or text “WEA” or “womensequality” to 877-877 to receive talking points via text message.

For further background on the Women’s Equality Agenda and a sample phone call script, you can visit our issue page.

This blog originally appeared here.

Parashat Chukat discusses the grim reality of death in the wilderness, the necessary succession in leadership, and the approach of the journey’s end. Repeatedly in this parashah, healing and new life follow death. The circle of our lives includes death, which follows life, not the other way around.

What about life and death today? My mother will be 96 years old on July 13. She still lives in the home I grew up in and has had 24/7 care for the last 5.5 years. As she approaches her long journey’s end, I’m in a state of wonder and awe. Even though her passing is inevitable, the entire process is a humbling one to watch. I feel like I’m in the presence of God as I watch her complete her journey. It would be interesting to know what is transpiring but because her dementia is so advanced that conversation is no longer possible.

My mother has had a very rich life. She was the youngest of six siblings and the only one left alive today. She has two children, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  She has lived long enough to see a succession of generations carry on her legacy.

The Jewish calendar teaches us to know and respect the cyclical aspects of our lives.  Each holiday courses through the year in a very set way, and at set times in each season.  It doesn’t really matter whether Hanukkah is in November or in December… it still rolls though the months and our lives in a set and predictable way. Perhaps births, our lives, and our deaths need to be viewed exactly the same way. The certainty of the seasons is just as predictable as life will be followed by death. We need to pay attention and embrace the cyclical pattern of the natural world and of our lives. Lives include death and are the natural course of all existence. A natural death after a long life needs to be embraced and not mourned.

Ultimately, we all will be part of this circle of life.

Myra Feiger is a WRJ Board Member and member of Women of Temple Sinai in Oakland, CA.

“We applaud the Obama Administration’s decision to allow women of all ages to access Plan B emergency contraception over-the-counter. This is an historic step toward ensuring that all women have access to the medical care that they need and deserve. Emergency contraception is safe and effective, restores a woman’s control over her reproductive health, and reduces the many physical and emotional risks of unintended pregnancies.

It is especially crucial that teenagers are able to access emergency contraception in a timely and unrestricted manner. More than three quarters of teenage pregnancies are unintended. Increased access to emergency contraception will help prevent such pregnancies and ensure that women have autonomy over their own bodies and reproductive decisions.

Unfortunately, opponents of emergency contraception have succeeded in severely limiting access to it in recent years. Restrictive age requirements as well as pharmacist refusal and limited pharmacy hours have created burdensome hurdles for women and unnecessarily limited the availability of this important medication. The Obama Administration’s reversal this week of its earlier position that required a Plan B prescription for those aged 16 and younger respects women’s moral agency and will advance reproductive health.”

Sisterhood women have had an incredible impact on my life. I am largely a product of the religious school system, of NFTY and URJ camping, all of which are opportunities afforded to me through sisterhood support. I feel fortunate to be a student at HUC-JIR, an institution that ordains women like me, in part because of the support (and perhaps pressure!) of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods/Women of Reform Judaism, and this year I have the opportunity to work for WRJ for my rabbinical internship. I am thankful to Women of Reform Judaism, and I personally owe a great deal to sisterhood women, both past and present, who have helped me to achieve my goals.

A sense of gratitude and a corresponding sense of duty are enough to make me spend several hours of an otherwise busy day working on a Mother’s Day gift for my own mother. However, these are not the feelings that get me out of bed in the morning, nor keep me motivated throughout the course of the day. After a long day of studying – which often entails the rigors of the rat race in New York City – it is not debt, nor appreciation, nor responsibility that pushes me onto a crowded train bound for the WRJ office. While these feelings are enough to get me to make a donation, or “like” the page on Facebook, they would probably not be enough to get me to join a local sisterhood chapter, nor are they the factors that brought me to the WRJ this year.

Why, then, do I give up rare afternoons on my sofa to send out last-minute office memos? Why do I sacrifice precious evenings with my boyfriend to instead sit in a small cubicle answering emails? Of all the internships to which I could have applied, why was Women of Reform Judaism at the top of my list? What inspires me, and women like me, to become active in local sisterhood chapters? It’s not the goals I’ve already achieved with the help of sisters and sisterhood, but the goals I am still working towards that motivate my contribution.

I am the daughter and granddaughter of activists. I am looking for others to link arms with me as we march together for a better world. It’s a nice image, perhaps a little cliché, but what does it mean? First, it means that I want to feel a part of a movement forward, part of something bigger than myself. Second, I know that my voice will be louder in unison with others. I know that I need the group and the group needs me, or we will not achieve the goals I am so passionate about. Lastly, I’m looking for a motivator, my gym-buddies in activism. I want to hear a voice on the phone, saying, “Toba, get up! I’m going to volunteer. I’m going to protest. I’m going to learn, to work, to study, to change the world. Come with me. We can get coffee on the way.” I work for WRJ because together we demand women’s freedom and religious pluralism in Israel, we fight for women’s access to health care and the right to make decisions that impact us, for equality in a nation where women still make less money for the same jobs as men, and for a voice in a tradition in which we have only recently been acknowledged. WRJ, sisterhood, this community, gives me the opportunity, the ability, and the motivation too, to make the world a better place.

Of course, there are days when my goals, my mission, my desire to change the world, are obscured by my immediate everyday life. There are days when a routine doctor’s appointment becomes anything but routine, and I am scared and lonely. On those days there aren’t enough causes or passion to motivate me to get out bed. On those days, when my own sister and mother are a thousand miles away, it is the women of WRJ that offer me love and support. It is the email from a board member reminding me that though “life can be so challenging,” I have lots of “sisters (more like Moms!) who care,” that truly inspires me to get up and keep going.

As my friends and I begin to make our lives and build our families, states and time zones and plane rides away from the families who raised us, these women, our adopted “sisters” and “mothers” have been the women who have stepped into the roles our families are too far away to play. These women are the “mothers” who hold us and comfort us after the doctor’s visit, make places for us at the family seder table, and throw us parties to celebrate our success. These are the “sisters” who advise us on the best Thai food in town, and take the babies for a night so we can have some peace and hold our hands as we cry, because they understand us in a way only someone else who has been there truly can. These are relationships that sustain us, these are the women for whom we would do anything in return. This is what sisterhood can provide, and these are the relationships that truly motivate me.

As we celebrate the achievements of WRJ in this centennial year and look toward the future of the organization, I have been asked what we can do to get young women involved in sisterhood. As nice as it sounds, no catchy program title or flashy social media page will ever be the answer. If we want to engage people, we must tap into their true motivation, the values that truly drive their lives. If they are anything like me, we must do as we have always done. We must continue to focus on justice and the mission for which we were founded. We must remember too, that we would do anything for our Jewish mothers and sisters.

Toba Strauss is the Rabbinical Intern for WRJ and just completed her third year of rabbinical studies at HUC-JIR in New York. Originally from Gillette, WY, Toba spent most of her childhood in Texas. After completing her degree in Cultural Anthropology and Jewish Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, Toba set out to explore American Jewish life. She has worked for Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life at Cornell and Northwestern Universities, the Federation of the Greater East Bay in Oakland, CA, and synagogues in Denver, CO and New York City. She looks forward to honing her education skills next year in HUC-JIR’s Masters in Religious Education Program. Toba says she wouldn’t be where she is today without the opportunities provided by her home congregation and sisterhood, Congregation Beth Shalom of the Woodlands, TX, and the constant love and support of her mother and sister, Dr. Bernice and Naomi Strauss.

Let’s look at a brief recap of the portion. Korach and his followers, Dathan and Abiram, lead a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. God punishes the rebels by burying them and their families alive. Once again, God brings a plague on the people. The chief of each tribe deposits his staff inside the Tent of Meeting. Aaron’s staff brings forth sprouts, produces blossoms, and bears almonds. The Kohanim and Levites are established and assigned the responsibility of managing the donations to the Sanctuary. All of the firstborn offerings shall go to the priests and all the tithes are designated for the Levites in return for the services they perform.

Most commentaries focus on Korach’s rebellion and spend a great deal of time (and internet bandwidth) discussing the hows and whys of such folly. Some discuss in detail exactly how the earth opened up and swallowed Korach and his entire family. Indeed, the d’var I gave at my bat mitzvah focused on the rebellion and punishment – a fact not lost on my two teenage children!

I still believe that grappling with Korach’s rebellion, Moses’ response, and God’s punishment is important. However, this year, as I read, a very different passage touched my heart. As we read above, in the fifth aliyah God told Moses to collect a staff from the chieftain of each of the 12 tribes, inscribe each man’s name on his staff, inscribe Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi, and deposit the staffs in the Tent of Meeting. The next day, Moses entered the Tent and Aaron’s staff had sprouted, blossomed, and borne almonds. What a beautiful metaphor for what my involvement in WRJ has done for me!

As I read those words, I thought of those women who, through WRJ, have touched my life. When I began my sisterhood journey almost 20 years ago, I was like that staff- knotted and knarled and immature. Through my experiences with my own sisterhood (Congregation Emanu El in Houston, TX), my district (now the Southwest District), and the WRJ board, I grew and flourished. I began to develop my self-confidence and with that, my leadership skills. With every step I took on my journey, the women who had walked that path before me supported me, encouraged me, and helped me take my place among the leadership of this organization, which I love so much. At each stage of my sisterhood growth, someone was there to mentor me.

Look around you. Someone needs your touch. There is a woman in your sisterhood with great potential. She might sit at the back of the room, or not even be at the table yet. All she needs to blossom is your hand, outstretched to guide her.

On this Shabbat when we gather to hear the story of Korach and his rebellious friends, let us remember the other story in this parashah, and reach out to those around us who could use our touch to blossom and bring forth their gifts.

On Sunday, June 2, I attended the wonderful WRJ Centennial Symposium in NYC.  I was delighted to be with WRJ on this occasion because of my long and rewarding connection to Sisterhood.

Among the superb presenters on WRJ history was my rabbinic school classmate, Rabbi Dr. Carole Balin, Professor of Jewish History at the New York campus of HUC-JIR, who gave me a “shout out” in recognition of that fact that I was the first local Sisterhood President to go to rabbinic school, to make the transition from lay to professional leadership within the Jewish community in the 1980s. Since then I learned that numerous women began their Jewish engagement with Sisterhood. While my path was unique at the time, it was the journey I was meant to take.

I grew up at Riverdale Temple in Bronx, NY where there was a model of a very strong Sisterhood. Therefore, it was natural for me to join Sisterhood as an adult at Village Temple in NYC. That Sisterhood encouraged me to take positions in leadership and worship with a special focus on coordinating and conducting Sisterhood Shabbat. Those skills propelled me into becoming co-Sisterhood president in the early 1980s as well as joining the Temple Board.

About that time, past Sisterhood and Temple president at Village Temple and active member of what was then NFTS District 3, Phyllis Silber z”l, invited me onto that illustrious board during the NFTS presidency of Constance Kreshtool. There I was able to continue my organizational and spiritual growth with the guidance and help of Dolores Wilkenfeld, Elaine Merians, Judith Hertz, Emita Levy z”l, Ina Rae Levy, Geraldine Voit, and other “giants” who gave me the opportunity to learn by example how to plan programs and take responsibility for District-wide events. It was from these experiences that I realized I wanted to make the rabbinate my life’s work.

I was accepted to HUC-JIR at the age of 36 to begin rabbinic studies, becoming the first president of Sisterhood to be ordained. During Rabbinic school I interned for a summer at NFTS under Executive Director Eleanor R. Schwartz.  I am ever grateful to Sisterhood for its part in the undergirding that supports my rabbinate.

Rabbi Shelley Kovar Becker is from Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation in Southington, CT.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend Women of Reform Judaism’s annual board meeting and special Centennial Symposium. The highlights of the weekend are too many to count – a keynote address from Dr. Jonathan D. Sarna at Sunday’s Symposium, a presentation from Rabbi Bradley Solmsen from the Campaign for Youth Engagement on the future of the Reform Movement, updates from all the WRJ departments on our impressive array of programs and initiatives from the past year, and deciding who will be the recipients of this year’s Or Ami Awards for Special Achievement.

Yet one part of the weekend has stuck in my head, even as I traveled back to D.C. and resumed life at the RAC : the WRJ Centennial Anthem that was sung so passionately at the end of Shabbat services on Saturday morning. The chorus is from a verse in Isaiah: “limdu heitiv, dirshu mishpat, ashru chamotz” – “learn to do good, seek justice, relieve the oppressed” and “Shiftu yatom, rivu almanah” – “uphold the orphan’s rights, take up the widow’s cause.” These commandments have been at the center of Reform Jewish social action – whether through WRJ or through the RAC – for decades and continue to be guiding principles for our whole Movement. Whether it’s the WRJ Board of Director’s passage of a gun violence prevention statement at this past weekend’s meeting, or Rabbi Rick Jacobs speaking at the Nuns on the Bus immigration reform kick-off event, or hundreds of clergy signing a letter in support of LGBT equality, Reform Jews are “seeking justice” on behalf of the oppressed, the orphan and the widow.

But what struck me most about the Centennial Anthem’s refrain is the very first word – “learn.” We must LEARN – and therefore, presumably, must be taught – the importance of pursuing justice and repairing our world. This is a lesson I got to experience first-hand through our L’taken seminars, and is a principle that WRJ has internalized and embodied through its now century-long (!) commitment to our Movement’s youth and instilling in them a strong sense of responsibility and social justice. Yet, as I think everyone at the board meeting this weekend realized, learning does not end when we graduate from 12^th grade. We all constantly learn better ways to “do good,” and more and more good work that there is still to be done. Let us not forgot the importance of turning learning into action, and of continuing this process throughout our lives.

The first time I ever heard of Kibbutz Yahel, I was a high school student, temple youth grouper and newly elected regional officer of MAFTY, now NFTY-MAR (Mid-Atlantic Region of Temple Youth). Within a short period of time, it seemed the whole North American Reform Movement was infused with the excitement of building Reform Jewish roots in Israel with the establishment of the first Reform Kibbutz, Kibbutz Yahel. It was the 70′s and the Reform Movement was (once again) making history and influencing lives.

The UAHC Youth Division partnered with the kibbutz movement in Israel. The Youth Division and NFTYites were busy developing an Israel identity and founding ”Garin Arava” the settlement group, or “Garin” for North American young adults to Kibbutz Yahel.

At the same time, the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (now WRJ) was very busy with another dream of partnership at the new kibbutz. This dream was to establish a Seminar Center for Education and Culture, primarily for Jewish youth visiting Israel and the Arava The project was called “Ma’ayan B’Midbar” translating to “A Wellspring in the Desert.” The inspiration for this project came to the NFTS leadership from the Book of Pslams, 107, verse 35:

God turns the wilderness into pools – parched land into springs of water.

From conception to building, the sisterhood women from coast to coast designed a North American campaign involving all ages, from youth through adult. After much hard work and determination, the women of NFTS were successful both in building the seminar center at Kibbutz Yahel and giving the then young kibbutz one of our first Anafim (‘Anaf’ means the branch of a tree, or in this case, one of the kibbutz collective businesses). This was not merely a gift of tzedakah, but a statement of purpose and mission. As an involved NFTYite, my introduction to those phenomenal sisterhood women was their personal example and unstoppable force. There was no question that NFTY on the local, regional and national levels would follow the NFTS Wellspring in the Desert Project, educating about and raising funds for the Youth and Culture Center in OUR new kibbutz.

NFTS fundraising brochure cover for Kibbutz Yahel Center for Education and Culture, designed by Ismar David z”l.

Little did I know then that a few years later I would make aliyah through “Garin Arava” and became a member of Kibbutz Yahel. Today, Yahel has been my home for more than thirty three years. Almost 25 of those years have been spent working in educational tourism at Ma’ayan B’Midbar envisioned by(now) Women of Reform Judaism. Just as NFTS touched my life as a youth group member and NFTYite, WRJ was the vision behind my professional adult life as well, my personal mifal chayim (life’s work) through the past quarter century. It has been my privilege to design and run programs over the years for thousands of NFTY in Israel participants, aiming also to strengthen Jewish Identity and instilling an Israel Identity in our visitors.

Hands down, here at Ma’ayan B’Midbar, the highlight of our year is the summer. That’s when we host the NFTY in Israel Desert Experience, a four day three night camping adventure in the desert, including hiking in the mountains, snorkeling in the Red Sea and running down smooth sand dunes. This program is an
example of how we can still travel through the desert exactly where our ancestors did, thousands of years ago. Bible in hand, it’s a living example of how the desert comes alive.

Ma’ayan B’Midbar, a dream turned reality by WRJ, touches personally on the deepest sources of the creation and the development of the Jewish people duringthousands of years of history. Through the dedication and vision of WRJ, the wildness has turned into wellsprings, indeed a Ma’ayan B’Midbar.

Lori Kotlen Stark is a founding member of Kibbutz Yahel and is married to Drew Stark. Together they have two sabra sons, Nadav and Elan. Lori has recently completed four terms serving on the Executive Board of the Israeli Reform Movement (IMPJ) and as the National Chairperson of the IMPJ’s Education Committee.

After reading through these sections of the parsha both in English and as best as I could in Hebrew, I could not find any gender designation for who was to perform or not perform either of these commandments. So what’s the big deal about a group of women praying with tallitot at the Kotel in Jerusalem? The concept of gender equality in the ultra-Orthodox community is quite alien and women must follow the designated path set for them by fathers, husbands, and Rabbis. The leadership of this community believes that since their way is the right way, they must control what happens at the Kotel and limit the religious freedom of others, especially women. As a Reform Jewish woman, I find this extremely problematic.

Since its beginning, I have been a supporter of the Women of the Wall (WOW) and have proudly worn my own WOW tallit since meeting Anat Hoffman during a congregational trip to Israel in 2000. Women of Reform Judaism has also been a loyal supporter of religious equality in Israel, though YES Fund contributions to WOW and to the Israel Religious Action Center. While I was unable to be there, I was so proud of my WRJ sisters as they joined WOW at the Kotel on Rosh Chodesh Nissan. WRJ’s physical presence certainly gave even more value to our commitment to this important issue. Recent court rulings have brought long awaited changes and hopefully these will remain and lead to complete religious equality at the Kotel, but there is still much to be accomplished. As Norfrat Frankel, the first women arrested for wearing a tallit at the Kotel, wrote; “Jerusalem is the city of holiness and justice for all humankind. From Zion, the voice calling for equality should be heard, for boundless love, for better understanding between people.” Let us continue our efforts to make this hope a reality, where women and men can pray at the Kotel according to their customs, in peace and tranquility.