Mazel Tov
Ordained as Rabbis
The following women were ordained as rabbis this past spring:
From the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform movement):
Susan Abramson, serving as Assistant, Beth Elohim, Wynnewood, Pa. Melanie Aron, Assistant, Temple B’nai Or, Morristown, N.J. Helene Ferris, Assistant, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, N.Y.C. Elyse Frishman, Reform Temple of Suffern, N.Y. Patrice Heller, Assistant, Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia. Leah Kroll, Emanu-El of Queens, Elmhurst, N.Y. Lynne Landsberg, Assistant, Central Synagogue, N.Y.C. Sandra Levine, in the Los Angeles area. Sara Perman, Assistant, Temple Beth El, Spring Valley, N.Y. Laurie Rutenberg, Chaplaincy Program, Yale University.
From the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (Reconstructionist movement):
Hava Pell, in King of Prussia, Pa. Joy Levitt, in Montclair, N.J. Susan Frank, in Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Library. Bonnie Koppell, part-time Chaplain in U.S. Army and part-time pulpit in Ossining, N.Y.
From London’s Leo Baeck College:
Sybil Sheridan, Barbara Borts
Five women cantors graduated from Hebrew Union College this past spring. All of them in a traditionally male field have already found positions.
REGINA HEIT is now serving at Congregation Adath B’nai Israel in Evansville, IN.
GAIL HIRSCHENFANG is now serving at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.
JUDITH KAHAN ROWLAND is now serving at Temple Isaiah in Forest Hills, NY.
ALANE SIMONS is now serving at Temple Israel in Columbus, OH.
ELLEN STETNER is now serving at the Stephen Wise Synagogue in New York City.
The cantorial program is five years long, the same as the rabbinical program. At present, HUC is the only school that graduates women cantors, although there are women who have studied privately and now serve as cantors.
In The Community
Dr. Paula Hyman, assumed a new position (as of September 1981) as Associate Professor of Jewish History and Dean of the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Vicki Lewis, first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, who recently finished her tour of active duty with the first Infantry division, took a position with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals
Dr. Judy Resnik, a mechanical engineer from Akron, Ohio, is among 35 men and women chosen in 1977 from among 8,000 applicants as astronauts-in-training for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space-shuttle program, to start in 1982.
Esther Leah Ritz, president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and vice-president of the National Jewish Welfare Board, elected president of the World Confederation of Jewish community Centers.
Doris Rosenthal, named Assistant Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Sioux City, Iowa.
Karen J. Rubinstein, named Executive Director of the American Zionist Federation, for which she has served as National Program Director for the past three years.
Marilyn Steinberg, elected president of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Toledo, Ohio.
Mrs. Jane Stern, re-elected vice-chairman of the board of trustees of Bar-Ilan University.
Rose Auslander, the 73-year old Jewish poet whose work warns of the possible recurrence of the Third Reich’s “annihilation madness,” won the 1980 Roswitha Memorial Medal, presented by the city of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony in honor of the first woman author to write in the German language— Roswitha von Gandersheim (935-1002).
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author and editor of Ms. Magazine, received the Matrix Award for best book of 1980 for her recent work, Growing Up Free: Raising Your Child in the ’80’s (McGraw-Hill). The award is the highest honor offered by the New York chapter of Women in Communications, Inc.
Among the 18 individuals inducted into the recently created International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame during the International Macca-biah Games in Israel last July were: Irina Kirszenstein-Szewinska, Poland (Track and Field: 1964,1968 Olympics gold medal winner), Agnes Keleti, Hungary (Gymnastics, 1952, 1956 Olympics gold medal winner), Angelica Rozeanu, Rumania (Table-Tennis), Fanny Rosenfeld, Canada (Track & Field, 1928 Olympics gold medal winner), Eva Szekely, Hungary (Swimming, 1952 Olympics gold medal), and Angela Buxton, Great Britain (Tennis, Wimbledon doubles champion with Althea Gibson, USA, ranked 6th internationally in her prime).
