Who is a Rabbi? Who is a Jew? Round I

In the last 5-6 years, there has been a great deal of internal debate within Orthodox circles over just which Orthodox rabbis should and should not be able to perform conversions.  Orthodoxy’s near ubiquitous dismissal of non-Orthodox’s converts has been going on for half a century or more, so that’s nothing new, whatever one’s feelings on the matter.  Yet there is a grim irony in the idea of Orthodox rabbis who have dismissed non-Orthodox conversions as illegitimate now finding their own conversions called into question. Call it “measure for measure,” or, “what goes around comes around,” or, to riff a fancy phrase, “the karma of exclusion has run over the dogma of exclusiveness.” Many of us Orthodox have come to know the feeling of being ‘rendered out-of-bounds.’

Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to rehash these thoughts, but they were prompted by an unusual source, a Reform Responsum, titled “Who Is a Rabbi?” (CCAR 5759.3).   Though the actors were different, the plot was very much the same. Here is the query:

“She'elah A new congregation has been formed in my city, founded by a woman who has attended the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (IISHJ), the rabbinical school of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. She serves as the congregation's rabbi, even though she has yet to be ordained by that school. She has been licensed by the state to perform weddings, and also does conversions. Should we accept these conversions as valid, even though they were supervised by someone other than an ordained rabbi? In general, what is our position with respect to individuals who have received private ordination or who claim to possess ordination from seminaries, schools or yeshivot with which we are unfamiliar? Do we recognize them as rabbis? Do we accept them as colleagues in our communities?”

I shall not paste the entire Teshuva below. But I will tell you the final score: 1-1. The convert was accepted, even  though the greater portion of cited legal sources and various arguments seemed to lead the reader the other way! The "rabbi" though, was not so lucky. Here is the final paragraph:

“To summarize: not everyone who may be called "rabbi" is necessarily deserving of that distinction. Your community is under no obligation to recognize the rabbinical credentials of those individuals who have received "ordination" privately or from lowly-regarded institutions. The rabbis in your city are similarly under no obligation to accept these persons as colleagues and as members of your local rabbinical association. You should, of course, act towards them with grace, cordiality and tact, with all due concern for communal unity, in the spirit of a tradition that calls upon us to follow "the paths of peace." Yet the ultimate message is clear: if we as rabbis truly care about the quality and the reputation of our calling, it is our duty to advocate that membership in the rabbinate be restricted to those who clearly meet the proper educational standards.”

Justified, yes. Sensible, certainly. But I feel the sting.

(To read the Teshuva in its entirety, click here: Who Is a Rabbi?)