Photograph by Ali Brauda As a Jewish woman and conscious inheritor of the legacy of the feminist movement in America... ...I have been able to do what many Jewish women in the world still cannot do: hold the Torah, our sacred scripture, in my arms. In the majority of Orthodox communities, women are not permitted to hold the Torah and they cannot be ordained as Rabbis--at least not yet. While making the film "Today I Am A Rabbi," I had a profound and stirring experience. I was documenting three women, all in their 50's, who became the first graduates of the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) in Los Angeles. The author with Torah on Mt.Sinai I remember the ecstatic look on the face of Rabbi Tsipora Gabai, when she was ordained as the first Moroccan-born female Rabbi in the world, breaking the gender taboo after nine consecutive generations of male Rabbis in her family. Tears glistened in the eye...
Women's Spiritual Poetry