Martha Neumark (1920a)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Martha Neumark (1904–1981) was a notable early figure in the history of women's ordination as rabbis. Neumark was widely reported to be the first Jewish woman to be accepted into a rabbinical school.


Biography

Martha Neumark was the daughter of a professor at
Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...
of
Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish religious movements, Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its Jewish ethics, ethical aspects to its ceremo ...
. In 1921, Neumark became the first female student at Hebrew Union College to declare her desire to become a rabbi. That year she requested a
High Holiday In Judaism, the High Holy Days, also known as High Holidays or Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim; , ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm'') consist of: #strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah ("Jewish New Year") and Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"); #by extension, the ...
pulpit for the next year, just as her male classmates would receive. The president of the college told its board of governors that it made sense that if she did preach and complete the required courses, she should be ordained; this touched off a debate on women's ordination, as no woman had ever been ordained as a rabbi. The faculty approved her preaching if the congregation in question did not object, but later forbid it as she failed one of her courses. However, the debate on women's ordination she had sparked continued. In 1922 Neumark and her father attended the
Central Conference of American Rabbis The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. The CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world. ...
Conference, where she succeeded in convincing the CCAR to ordain women rabbis. The CCAR declared in a responsa in 1922, "...woman cannot justly be denied the privilege of ordination," having voted 56 to 11 in favor of that statement. Yet the board of the college still refused to consider women for ordination, voting (as Neumark recalled) six laymen to two rabbis against it. Neumark thus earned a qualification as a religious school principal instead of ordination, though she had spent 7 and a half years in rabbinical school. In 1925 Martha's article “The Woman Rabbi: An Autobiographical Sketch of the First Woman Rabbinical Candidate,” was published in the Jewish Tribune and Hebrew Standard. Some of her personal papers are now held in the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union College. Following Neumark, instances of American Jewish women who studied for rabbinical ordination but were denied formal ordination include Helen Levinthal. Levinthal was denied ordination after completing her studies in 1935.


Independent Jewish Press Service

In the early 1940s, Neumark served as the executive editor of the Independent Jewish Press Service.


Personal life

Martha Neumark married Henry Montor in 1924. The couple divorced in 1956. Neumark died in 1981 at the age of 77. Neumark's parents were Rabbi Dr David Neumark (1866–1924), professor at Hebrew Union College and Mrs Dora Neumark (d. 1959). Her siblings were Salomea Brainin and Immanuel K. Neumark.''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' (Cincinnati, Ohio), 16 Jul 1959, Thursday. Page 21.


See also

*
Regina Jonas Regina Jonas (; German: ''Regine Jonas'';As documented by ''Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Geburtsregister; Laufendenummer 892'' which reads: "''In front of the signed registrar appeared today... Wolff Jonas... ...
*
Ray Frank Rachel "Ray" Frank (April 10, 1861 in San Francisco – October 10, 1948) was a Jewish religious leader in the United States. Frank was an early figure in the acceptance of women rabbis and was reported as a prospective candidate for the first w ...
*
Lena Aronsohn Lena Aronsohn (b. 1870) was reported to be an early figure in the American Jewish community's transition to accept women rabbis. Aronsohn was described in the American press as potentially becoming the first woman rabbi. She was a candidate for th ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumark, Martha Reform Judaism and women 1904 births 1981 deaths Women rabbinical students