An article by Saleha Lodhi dealing with Interfaith contacts and the message being sent from the growing awareness of other faiths.
On November 28th, 2005 the 12th graders of Al-Iman School had the privilege of meeting a Jewish guest named Elizabeth. This visit was part of our Interfaith Class in which guests come to our school and talk to us about their lives and experiences. Elizabeth is studying in College to be a female Rabbi. It was an amazing experience for all of us. We learnt a lot about her life experiences. We talked about various topics. She told us that there are only 800 female Rabbis around the world which does not include Orthodox Jews because they are the more strict denomination and believe that women shouldn’t be able to lead prayers. Although Orthodox Jews don’t have female Rabbis which lead prayers and preach to others about Judaism, they still have some women who are trained only to preach to others and learn about Judaism.
They are not allowed to lead prayers as yet but Elizabeth believes over a period of time some of their laws will change, eventually allowing Orthodox women to become Rabbis as well. We also discussed other things such as her life as a younger child and how she came to the conclusion that she should become a Rabbi. She told us about how she used to take classes, to learn Hebrew and other things in Judaism, after school 3 days a week for 3 hours.She told us that she didn’t like taking those classes, because she was forced to do so. She took those classes after school for about 10 years. When she went to college, she majored in Law and worked as well. She went to many schools, one of them was a pluralistic college which represented the different Jewish denominations. She had a hard time being in this college because of different beliefs but said that it helped her become a stronger “Conservative Jew”. Elizabeth gave us examples of the varieties of individuals. When it came to leading prayers or saying a blessing, every student had their own way of doing so. Some people thought singing songs was the right thing to do while, others thought reading from their Holy books were more appropriate.
Elizabeth was also involved in other activities as well. She wrote a lot of sermons and many other things which involved Judaism. She spent a lot of time in College not paying attention in class, she was trying to finish up her sermon and realized most of her time had to deal with Jewish activities and that’s when she began to think about changing her major. She decided to become a Rabbi. Her family had been very supportive about her decision and was proud of her.
