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Two months before Beth Jacob was founded, in May, 1985, The Jewish Theological Seminary ordained Rabbi Amy Eilberg, the first Conservative rabbi who was a woman. While Beth Jacob was a special place for Rabbi Eilberg more recently, a founding story of our shul’s commitment to egalitarianism involves a woman whose name will not otherwise be remembered in historical narratives. In 1986, when I began my 33 years of service to Beth Jacob Congregation, we decided that all folks were to wear a kippa and tallit if given an aliyah or other honor in shul. That decision was not easy to make and it certainly impacted several folks in our shul who were not comfortable wearing either a tallit or kippa. However, if we were to truly demonstrate that both women and men had equal access to and equal responsibility for religious leadership, this decision was necessary.
Today, when one walks into shul at Beth Jacob, you will see both women and men in tallit and kippa. The person perhaps most responsible for that was Sarah Segal Witkin(zl). Sarah grew up in Superior, Wisconsin and was a bright and talented individual. A whiz with numbers, she spent many years working and supporting herself after the death of her husband, Max (zl). She was shy, reticent and not prone to drawing attention to herself. And yet, one Sunday morning in early 1987, she agreed to put on a tallit for morning minyan in Room 107 at the JCC, where Beth Jacob met for its first few years. Sitting in the front row, Sarah was accosted by an elderly man who pulled the tallit off her shoulders as he declared “these tallesim are for the men.” Sarah’s eyes welled up with tears and she immediately got up and left the room.
I followed her out into the hall, apologized for not seeing the incident, and reassured her that she—and any other woman who wanted to wear a tallit—should do so. I assured her that we would protect her from such behavior in the future. Sarah was not sure. She said that women in Superior never wore a tallit and for the many years she was in St. Paul she only saw a very few do so. It probably wasn't for her. I encouraged her to think about this and talk with some other folks about it. The next time minyan met, her friend Sarah Ward also put on a tallit and the two of them sat proudly in the front of the room. This time, as someone approached to rebuke them and remove their tallesim, I saw it developing and proceeded to stop it from happening. From that day forward, whenever Sarah Ward and Sarah Witkin were in shul, they wore their tallesim with pride. While it was true that already many of our younger and newer members were wearing tallesim, seeing the two Sarahs proudly sitting with their shoulders draped with a tallis changed the atmosphere in our shul.
Soon other older women began wearing tallesim—Rhoda Doneshefsky, Zelda Katz, Beyla Ginzberg, Mary Liefschultz, and even Min Karter (all zl). By the time we moved into our current building women wearing a tallit had become the norm inside our shul.
Those older women are now all gone. As we celebrate 40 years of the ordination of women in Conservative Judaism this year, for me, equally important is the celebration of Sarah Witkin’s act of defiance and determination to live her life as a model for others. May her memory only be for a blessing and may the memory of those other righteous women serve as continued inspiration for us all.
Morris J. Allen, Rabbi Emeritus
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