Board of Trustees
December 1976
Los Angeles, California
Historically the Reform Jewish movement has pioneered in asserting the principle and furthering the practice of the equality of women on every level of life, including religious rights. We are proud of the ever-increasing role of women in the councils of Reform Judaism as lay leaders and professionals, including the office of congregational presidents and even that of rabbis.
Indeed, the present trend indicates that increasing proportions of entering students of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion will be women. It appears likely that, by l979, approximately one-third of the newly ordained rabbis in the Reform Jewish movement will be women.
Accordingly, we commend the College-Institute as the first Jewish seminary to ordain women as rabbis and for its insistence on the equality of opportunity. We also praise the Central Conference of American Rabbis for insisting that there be no discrimination based on sex in the placement procedures of the rabbinate.
We call upon the leadership and staff of the UAHC to develop effective programs to sensitize our congregations and congregants so that they can respond to the historic development of women in the rabbinate with maturity and in keeping with the high principles of our movement. We also call upon the congregations that make up this Union of American Hebrew Congregations to intensify their educational efforts to raise the consciousness of our congregants in every sector in order to secure the equality of women within congregational life.