Re: JTS and Female Cantors

[wiener <wiener...>]

Lori,

I certainly would appreciate it if you asked your sister if she knows whether 
the Conservative movement has ever issued a responsum on Kol Isha.  

My impression is that the resolution of the Kol Isha issue far pre-dated the 
decision on women cantors.  The question of a woman as a sh'lihat tsibur really 
wasn't my question.  

Thus far, my research has led me review the indices of several works on 
Conservative Judaism and to scan 3 responsa on women in t'filah and Jewish law 
(aliyot and counting in a minyan).  None of them even mention Kol Isha even 
though one of the responsa was written in 1955.  My tentative conclusion is 
that any formal resolution on the issue, if there was one, was before 1955.  

My relatively uneducated guess is that there was enough of a rabbinic consensus 
and the nature of the observance of the principle was such that either a 
responsum was never written or that it was resolved very early, perhaps along 
with consideration of the mehitsa.

Bob
    -----Original Message-----
    From: MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com <MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com>
    To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
    Date: Monday, February 19, 2001 9:47 PM
    Subject: JTS and Female Cantors
    
    
    In a message dated 02/20/2001 12:45:54 AM !!!First Boot!!!, 
    wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com writes: 
    
    
    
        However, it is true that there is no mention in its index of Kol Ishah. 
 I 
        do not know when that issue whether/when that issue was formally 
resolved 
        by Conservative Judaism.
    
    
    If anyone is seriously interested in this question, I'll ask my sister, 
Riki, 
    to respond when she gets back in town.  She was in the class of the first 
two 
    female cantors to be invested by JTS.  I think it was ten years ago, give 
or 
    take.  There was a tremendous amount of thought and debate that went into 
    that decision, but checking what the congregations thought about it was not 
    one that I am aware of.  I recall, for instance, that Riki's audition for 
her 
    congregation (Oheb Shalom in South Orange) was met with serious opposition 
by 
    the board.  When it came down to the personal level, however, those opposed 
    came to consider that it was possible to be inspired (and not distracted or 
    turned on) by a chazanit with the appropriate appearance and with true 
    kavanah. 
    
    Lori