Women Rabbis and Jewish Community in 21St Century New Mexico Miria Kano
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Anthropology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 12-1-2013 Storied Lives in a Living Tradition: Women Rabbis and Jewish Community in 21st Century New Mexico Miria Kano Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Kano, Miria. "Storied Lives in a Living Tradition: Women Rabbis and Jewish Community in 21st Century New Mexico." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/37 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Miria Kano Candidate Anthropology Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Suzanne Oakdale, PhD, Chairperson Louise Lamphere, PhD Les Field, PhD Mari Lyn Salvador, PhD i Storied Lives in a Living Tradition: Women Rabbis and Jewish Community in 21st Century New Mexico by MIRIA KANO B.U.S., University Studies, University of New Mexico, 1999 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2002 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2013 ii DEDICATION For our beautiful Hannah with love -- Your brief life and enduring memories will always be a blessing. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Suzanne Oakdale, my dissertation chair, for her copious support during the lengthy process of fieldwork, write up and defense that resulted in this dissertation. This project benefited tremendously from her research vision, theoretical contributions, editorial abilities, and patient direction. I am so very grateful for the lessons I have learned over these years, and know that they will add value to the quality of work and variety of projects I continue to undertake in my career as an anthropologist. I would also like to offer my most sincere thanks to my other committee members, Dr. Les Field, Dr. Louise Lamphere, and Dr. Mari Lyn Salvador, for their brilliant insights and generosity of spirit. I have truly flourished as a scholar and researcher due to their dedication, knowledge, and passion. I look forward to continued work with each of these amazing mentors, and am so grateful for their guidance. In the process of this work, I have been honored to receive the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award, the Karl H. Schwerin Graduate Fellowship in Ethnology, the New Mexico Folk Lore Scholars Endowment, and the Hibben Senior Fellowship. I am likewise grateful for additional funding provided by the University of New Mexico Graduate and Professional Student Association. This dissertation would not have been possible without the courageous participation of my co-collaborators, the women rabbis whose words fill these pages, Rabbi Deborah Brin, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Rabbi Shefa Gold, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, and Rabbi Min Kantrowitz. I am so privileged to know you, and so humbled to share your stories. iv Finally, I need to thank the incredible friends and family members who accompanied me on this journey. Amira, Andy, Bear, Caitlin, Catie, Chrissy, Dad, Ellen, Erin, Grandma and Grandpa, Gwen, Heather, Jennifer, John, Judith, Kelley, Lara, Lavinia, Lindsay, Mark, Marnie, Marta, Mary, Meredith, Michelle, Mom, Monica, Patti, Randy, Sue, and Thurna…I love you all. v Storied Lives in a Living Tradition: Women Rabbis and Jewish Community in 21st Century New Mexico by MIRIA KANO B.U.S., University Studies, University of New Mexico, 1999 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2002 Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2013 ABSTRACT Between 2001 and 2012, I collaborated with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Rabbi Shefa Gold, Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, and Rabbi Deborah Brin to investigate the challenges and opportunities afforded by women’s recent attainment of rabbinic ordination. As members of the first and second generations of women rabbis, they offer unique perspectives on the recent histories of both American and Jewish cultures. This dissertation is a narrative exploration of how these rabbis came of age, cultivated self-understanding, chose careers as spiritual leaders, crafted public identities, and formed communities in 20th/21st Century American Jewish societies. This research focuses on the role of autobiographical story construction and performance in the transformation of rabbinic leadership, and examines the ways in which these stories provide new models for people seeking contemporary or alternative Jewish practice and connection. I question too the ways in which these stories foster Jewish identity and community in two New Mexico congregations, Congregation Nahalat Shalom and HaMakom, the Place for Passionate and Progressive Judaism, as well as in the expanding margins of less traditional, electronically mediated Jewish communities, Jewish Family Services, Shomer Shalom, and Kol Zimra. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 ...................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction: The Storytellers: The Storytelling CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................... 23 A Brief History of Women’s Quest for Ordination in a Shifting American Jewish Landscape CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................... 48 Spiritual Callings: Identity and Cohesion in the Life Stories of Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and Rabbi Malka Drucker CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................................... 81 Growing up ‘Jewish:’ Body, Relation and Authenticity in the Life Stories of Three Women Rabbis CHAPTER 5 .................................................................................................................. 119 Education, Activism, Leadership: Stories at the Intersection of Personal and Social Histories CHAPTER 6 .................................................................................................................. 165 Spiritual Journeys: The Sovereign Self and the Path to Purpose CHAPTER 7 .................................................................................................................. 200 Creating New Judaism(s) in New Mexico: Performing Community at Congregation Nahalat Shalom and HaMakom: The Place for Passionate and Progressive Judaism CHAPTER 8 .................................................................................................................. 243 Traditionalizing the Modern Spiritual Seeker: Tying Innovation to Tradition through Autobiography CHAPTER 9 .................................................................................................................. 268 Making Meaningful Judaism(s) for a Capricious World: Imagined Contexts for Spiritual Community in Jewish Family Services, Shomer Shalom and Kol Zimra vii CONCLUSION: ............................................................................................................ 311 New Mexico’s Living Tradition: Women Rabbis at the Center of 21st Century Liberal Judaisms WORKS CITED............................................................................................................ 321 viii PREFACE Between 2001 and 2012, I collaborated with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Rabbi Shefa Gold, Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, and Rabbi Deborah Brin. As members of the first and second generations of women rabbis to practice in the United States, these five women offer unique perspectives on the recent histories of both American and Jewish cultures. They have experienced the opportunities and the challenges that many women in these societies have faced over the second half of the 20th century. They have also experienced pressures specifically relating to their choices to receive rabbinic ordination, an option that only became available to women in 1972. While I anticipated such experiences to play significant roles in the stories each rabbi conveyed, I did not anticipate the importance of the form and content in each rabbi’s story. The rabbis, as practiced storytellers, seemed fully aware of the ways in which their narrative selections, story form and content would be received by their intended audiences, and were careful to build their stories of profession and community in ways that evoked authenticity, integrity, insight, and inspiration. Through this work I have had the fortune of working with five remarkable women whose experiences and stories have recorded, transformed, and created Jewish communities in New Mexico. I have a tremendous respect for each storyteller. In our collaborations, I have benefited from their knowledge, dedication, patience, and passion. Our conversations have changed my understanding of Judaism, shaped my insight into American history, and inspired me toward social justice and activism. ix Storied Lives in a Living Tradition: Women Rabbis and Jewish Community in 21st Century New Mexico is a narrative exploration of how five women came of age, developed self-understanding, crafted public identities, and professionalized through their experiences of a transforming