Last week I posted this.  While I wholeheartedly agree that there is a need for talented, qualified Jewish educators in lots of venues throughout the world.  It seems to me that the ordination of women as rabbis solely to serve as instructors in Jewish high schools throughout North America is still limiting the potential for women to serve the Jewish community.  I also think it can become uncontrollable.  Once a woman has this masters degree and smicha, what is to stop her from going to North America and starting her own congregation? The Hartman Institute is a reputable institution in the Jewish world and I would not question those with ordination from them.  There are too many others running around claiming the title, ‘rabbi’ who have no qualifications and it seems this type of program is creating a slippery slope.

I am proud to be a woman rabbi and to be an ordainee of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and I am proud of my colleagues and would welcome the modern orthodox establishment of women as Torah scholars and bearers of the title of rabbi without restriction on the type of service that they might perform.