Once a Month ♦ Just For Yourself ♦ Just For Your Soul

Join us as we discuss
Celebrating Five Decades of Women in the Rabbinate
with Rabbi Alysa Mendelson Graf from Port Jewish Center

Meeting will be held via Zoom. 
Contact Charlotte Cohen with questions and for the Zoom link.

The effect of Rabbi Sally Priesand’s historic ordination by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 has been significant, reaching beyond Reform Judaism to affect the whole Jewish community. In the last five decades, women have revolutionized the rabbinate with their presence, and we continue to see the far-reaching effects of women in the rabbinate today. Together, we will explore the many ways the ordination of women has affected the Jewish community.

Rabbi Alysa Mendelson Graf received Ordination from HUC-JIR (NY) in 2004. She has been the rabbi of Port Jewish Center, a small, haimish synagogue in Port Washington, NY, since July of 2014. Prior to coming to PJC, Rabbi Mendelson served Temple Israel in Westport, CT as its Assistant Rabbi, then Associate Rabbi for almost a decade. Rabbi Mendelson grew up in Scarsdale, NY. She is a 1993 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating Fordham University Law School in 1997, Rabbi Mendelson worked as a matrimonial attorney in Manhattan before deciding to pursue the rabbinate. Rabbi Mendelson has been an active member of the CCAR and of the Women’s Rabbinic Network. She has served on the board of the WRN for 12 years, including as a co-president. She is currently the WRN Liaison to the board of the CCAR. She was a STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) PEER fellow and is a 2016-17 Fellow with the NY Rabbinic Fellowship for Visionary Leaders. She is the co-editor of The Sacred Calling: Forty Years of Women in the Rabbinate (CCAR Press) and wrote a chapter called “Getting to the Gold Standard in Maternity Leave Clauses.” Rabbi Mendelson is married to Adam Graf. They have three sons, Gideon, Solomon and Rafi and reside in Port Washington, New York.

About Rosh Chodesh:
What is Rosh Chodesh? A special day that Jewish feminists have "reclaimed" for feminine spirituality. Tradition says that as a reward for our faithfulness, God gave women Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the new month, and even exempted us from our usual household duties. 

The Rosh Chodesh Group is jointly sponsored by The Community Synagogue, Port Jewish Center, and Temple Beth Israel.