User:Zack3133/sandbox

-Humanistic Judaism is a movement in Judaism that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish holidays and life cycle events (such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvah) with inspirational ceremonies that draw upon but go beyond traditional literature. Humanistic Judaism ordains both men and women as rabbis, and its first rabbi was a woman, Tamara Kolton, who was ordained in 1999. Its first cantor was also a woman, Deborah Davis, ordained in 2001; however, Humanistic Judaism has since stopped ordaining cantors. The Society for Humanistic Judaism issued a statement in 1996 stating in part, "we affirm that a woman has the moral right and should have the continuing legal right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy in accordance with her own ethical standards. Because a decision to terminate a pregnancy carries serious, irreversible consequences, it is one to be made with great care and with keen awareness of the complex psychological, emotional, and ethical implications." They also issued a statement in 2011 condemning the then-recent passage of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" by the U.S. House of Representatives, which they called "a direct attack on a woman's right to choose". In 2012 they issued a resolution opposing conscience clauses that allow religious-affiliated institutions to be exempt from generally applicable requirements mandating reproductive healthcare services to individuals or employees. In 2013 they issued a resolution stating in part, "Therefore, be it resolved that: The Society for Humanistic Judaism wholeheartedly supports the observance of Women's Equality Day on August 26 to commemorate the anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing women to vote; The Society condemns gender discrimination in all its forms, including restriction of rights, limited access to education, violence, and subjugation; and The Society commits itself to maintain vigilance and speak out in the fight to bring gender equality to our generation and to the generations that follow."

Since the mid 19th century, the role of Jewish women in humanistic efforts has also extended to Second-Wave feminism. For instance, Ernestine Rose, an associate of civil rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, led the push for womens' rights to inherit property. As the daughter of a Polish rabbi, she simultaneously spoke out against anti-Semitism in her efforts. Additionally, Maud Nathan became a prominent voice in the suffrage movement of the early 20th century.

-In 1955, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism declared that women were eligible to chant the blessings before and after the reading of the Torah, a privilege called "Aliyah". However, in 1962, a study found that only eight conservative congregations had fully embraced the ruling while fifty implemented it with conditions and a staggering 196 congregations still had not adopted this newfound right of Jewish women. In the late 1960s, the first Orthodox Jewish women's tefillah (prayer) group was created, on the holiday of Simhat Torah at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. This development came by the judgement of the synagogue's rabbi, Shlomo Riskin. Further, the late 1960s saw Bat Mitzvahs, a public coming of age ritual for Jewish girls, become widespread after Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative Jews allowed women to partake in and lead a congregation in prayer. In 1973, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards passed a takkanah (ruling) allowing women to count in a minyan equally with men. Also in 1973, the United Synagogue of America, Conservative Judaism's congregational association (now called the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism) resolved to allow women to participate in synagogue rituals and to promote equal opportunity for women for positions of leadership, authority, and responsibility in congregational life. In 1974, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adopted a series of proposals that equalized men and women in all areas of ritual, including serving as prayer leaders.

In the early 1970s, new rituals began popularizing. Jewish women staged public ceremonies for the birth of their daughters, sharing the ritual of "brit millah" which was historically reserved for newborn sons. They started forming special groups for prayer and study on Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the new month, with their newfound freedoms to congregate. Women also contributed to the observance of Passover by placing a goblet of water, called "Miriam's cup", on the Seder table to include her, as Moses' sister, in the narrative of his exodus from Egypt with the Jewish people.

In 1972 Sally Priesand became America's first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi, after Regina Jonas. Priesand was ordained by the Reform Jewish Seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion on 3 June 1972, at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati.

Also in 1972, a group of ten New York Jewish feminists calling themselves Ezrat Nashim (the women's section in a synagogue, but also "women's help"), took the issue of equality for women to the 1972 convention of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, presenting a document on 14 March that they named the "Call for Change." The rabbis received the document in their convention packets, but Ezrat Nashim presented it during a meeting with the rabbis' wives. The Call for Change demanded that women be accepted as witnesses before Jewish law, be considered as bound to perform all mitzvot, be allowed full participation in religious observances, have equal rights in marriage and be allowed to initiate divorce, be counted in the minyan, and be permitted to assume positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the general Jewish community. Paula Hyman, who was a member of Ezrat Nashim, wrote that: "We recognized that the subordinate status of women was linked to their exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot (commandments), and we therefore accepted increased obligation as the corollary of equality." With supportive persuasion from Gerson Cohen, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Rabbinical Assembly accepted their proposal in 1973 and the JTS in 1983.

-In 1983, the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), the main educational institution of the Conservative movement, voted, without accompanying opinion, to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors. Paula Hyman, among others, took part in the vote as a member of the JTS faculty. There had been a special commission appointed by the Conservative movement to study the issue of ordaining women as rabbis, which met between 1977 and 1978, and consisted of 11 men and three women; the women were Marian Siner Gordon, an attorney, Rivkah Harris, an Assyriologist, and Francine Klagsbrun, a writer. Amy Eilberg became the first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism in 1985. In disapproval of such developments, several members of the JTS separated In 1984 and formed the Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism. Later, in 1989, some of the dissidents founded the Institute of Traditional Judaism, an organization committed to "Genuine Faith and Intellectual Honesty", a direct counter-establishment to the liberation of women in religious practice and Jewish society