Conservatives ordain 3 female rabbis in Jerusalem
A significant event for the Conservative Movement in Israel: Three women and one man ordained Sunday; MK Melchior awarded prize for promoting religious tolerance
Four new conservative rabbis, Chaya Rowel-Baker, Judith Rubin, Roni Boaz-Klein and Gali Snir were ordained Sunday in Jerusalem by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. At the ceremony in Jerusalem, Knesset Member Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) was awarded the Liebhaber Prize for Religious Tolerance.
The Marc and Henia Liebhaber Prize for Promotion of Religious Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism in Israel, which was first given 13 years ago following the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was awarded to MK Melchior for his role in "nurturing religious and secular dialogue and the nurturing of the relationship between the leaders of the three monotheistic religions".
Rabbi Marc Liebhaber presented the prize and told the audience about his three basic values: dialogue, multiculturalism and skepticism.
Congratulations! (Photo: Avi Hayun)
Liebhaber told a Yiddish tale about Jews who went to their rabbi and asked his permission to desecrate Shabbat in an emergency. The rabbis did not agree. According to Liebhaber, the rabbi did not understand that different people have different needs and different values. He said that Israel is powerful and prosperous because of its diversity, because of the combination of religious and secular, Zionists and non-Zionists.
