Thirty-five years of women in charge

The parallels are astonishing. For centuries rabbis had been male. In Jewish life, women deserved respect, but it was men who had been the guardians of tradition.

Suddenly women wanted to become rabbis. What was even more confusing is that they did not base their claim just on grounds of equity or human rights but on religious reasons.

They cited women in leadership roles in the Bible, such as Miriam and Deborah. They pointed out that many of the tasks of a minister – such as teaching or tending the sick – were traditionally occupied by women.

For Orthodox synagogues – as with the Catholic church – this was simply not an option. Those in power had long ago decreed that while women were equal in the sight of God, they were not equal in religious responsibilities and it would be a dishonour for men to have even a learned and pious women in a position of authority over them.

For Reform and Liberal synagogues – the Anglicans of Judaism, if you like – the issue was more complicated. Like the Anglicans today, there was a major divide between those who were keen to respond to new social conditions, and those who disliked moving any further from tradition than they already had done.

The latter were the more complex and interesting group – again like current Anglicans – for it contained a mixture of those whose views were based on conviction, confusion and deceit.

For some there was a genuine religious conviction that ordination was a male preserve and this was the will of God. For others, though, female ordination was not the real issue but exposed their own confusion as to whether they were heirs of tradition or a heretical sect. For them it was safer to say "no" and thereby shore up their perception of themselves as true Jews.

There were also those who were simply against women taking on positions of power, either out of dislike of change or out of prejudice or because they felt threatened personally, and they used the cloak of religion to justify their stance.

There were many heated discussions but the outcome was determined almost accidentally. A woman applied to the Leo Baeck (Rabbinic) College. The admissions committee decided that although the theological arguments were still raging, there could be no objection to her acquiring Jewish learning and let her in.

Five years later they realised that as she had finished the course and satisfied all requirements, they had no reason not to ordain her and in 1975 Britain had its first female rabbi.

However, there was another hurdle to overcome: the congregations. When the early female ministers came to preach, there were threats of splits and predictions of walk-outs. In the event, almost none of these occurred.

The reason was prosaically simple: at first, people were shocked by the sight of a woman in the pulpit, but fairly soon their ears took over from their eyes. She was either inspiring or boring, and was judged in the same way as was a male rabbi.

Today, around a third of congregational rabbis in Reform and Liberal Synagogues are female (though still none in the Orthodox). It is not that they have ousted male colleagues, but that they have plugged the gap that was already occurring as male applicants declined.

They have not just imitated male colleagues but have brought a different work ethic to the rabbinate: as a generalisation, they have proved more collegial and less competitive, and better at listening rather that propounding.

Some male rabbis were shocked at having to surrender their gender's monopoly on the profession, but after 30 years most have learnt to see female rabbis not as female colleagues but simply as colleagues.

Amongst the congregations, the near universal consensus is that female rabbis have been a great benefit. As we watch the writhings of the Anglican church, we both recognise the painful process of change and hope that it will be able to conduct its religious debate free from the fears, jealousies and pettiness that can so often discolour it.

Jonathan Romain. Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain is minister of Maidenhead synagogue and the author of The Jews of England.