Lila Kagedan ( years old) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

rabbi who in 2016 became the first woman with the title rabbi to be hired by an Orthodox synagogue. This occurred when Mount Freedom Jewish Center in New Jersey, which is open Modern Orthodox, hired Kagedan to join their "spiritual leadership team." She is currently the rabbi at Walnut Street Synagogue, an Orthodox synagogue in Massachusetts.

Background

Lila Kagedan is the first woman with the title rabbi to be hired by an American Orthodox Jewish congregation.

Ordination

Prior to her ordination as rabbi, Kagedan studied at

Midreshet Lindenbaum Midreshet Lindenbaum (), originally named Michlelet Bruria, is a midrasha in Talpiot, Jerusalem. It counts among its alumnae many of the teachers at Matan, Nishmat, Pardes and other women's and co-ed yeshivas in Israel and abroad. History Michl ...

, an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i institution of higher learning for Orthodox women. Kagedan trained and received ordination in the summer of 2015 from ''

Yeshivat Maharat Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx, New York, which was the first Open Orthodox yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word ''Maharat'' () is a Hebrew acronym for phrase ''manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toran ...

'', the Orthodox women's religious training program founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. Unlike other ''Maharat'' graduates, who assumed titles such as ''rabba'' (feminine version of "rabbi") or ''maharat'' (''manhiga hilchatit ruchanit toranit'', or "female leader of Jewish law, spirit and Torah"),''Jewish Journal'
Orthodox shul takes first step to hiring female clergy
September 11, 2014 Kagedan was the first to take the title "rabbi", because she said she felt that it was the most natural following her ordination.

Career

Kagedan is a medical ethicist and serves as an instructor of bioethics at

Touro College Touro University is a private Jewish university system headquartered in New York City, with branches throughout the United States as well as one each in Germany, Israel and Russia. It was founded by Bernard Lander in 1971 and named for Isaac ...

. She is also a Hadassah Brandeis Institute-Gender, Culture, Religion and Law research associate, and either serves or has served as a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

in various hospitals in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

areas. In 2011, Kagedan founded the Sulam School in

Brookline Brookline may refer to: Places in the United States * Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston * Brookline, Missouri * Brookline, New Hampshire * Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Brookline, Vermont See ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, a K-5 program that offers immersive Judaic studies in a pluralistic environment. In 2016 Mount Freedom Jewish Center in New Jersey, which is Open Orthodox i.e.pseudo Conservative, stated that they had hired Kagedan to join their "spiritual leadership team." After she began that job, it was announced that she had been appointed at the Modern Orthodox Shira Hadasha synagogue in Melbourne, Australia as a Rabbi in Residence; this made her its first female rabbi. She was to serve for five weeks beginning in May 2016. As of 2017, she is serving, under the title senior Rabbi, at the Walnut Street Synagogue in Massachusetts, having been hired by the synagogue in 2016.

Reception in Orthodox community

Following Kagedan's hiring as a synagogue rabbi, some Orthodox news outlets reported Kagedan's hiring by an Orthodox synagogue with derision, putting terms like "clergy" and "ordination" in quotes. In 2015, the

Rabbinical Council of America The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union (OU). It is the main p ...

, the main Orthodox rabbinical group, formally adopted a policy prohibiting the ordination or hiring of women rabbis by synagogues that operate within the boundaries of their figurative jurisdiction, regardless of title. Also in 2015,

Agudath Israel of America Agudath Israel of America ( he, אגודת ישראל באמריקה) (also called Agudah) is an American organization that represents Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to ...

denounced any ordaination of women, declaring the ordaining institutions to have rejected the tenets of Orthodoxy. The

Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) is an Open Orthodox Jewish organization providing educational services on women's issues, with the aim of expanding "the spiritual, ritual, intellectual, and political opportunities for women within ...

released a statement supporting women attaining the title of Rabbi and invited Rabbi Kagedan to speak at the 2017 JOFA international conference. Asked why she chooses to identify with Orthodoxy when a number of other Jewish denominations readily accept female clergy, Kagedan responded that she was raised in Orthodoxy and remains committed to its tenets.

Personal life

Kagedan moved with her family to

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada when she was about 8 years old, and she entered the 4th grade at the local Hillel Academy (now the

Ottawa Jewish Community School The Ottawa Jewish Community School (or OJCS) is a pluralistic Jewish day school in Ottawa, Ontario. The school was founded as Hillel Academy in 1949, and amalgamated with Yitzhak Rabin High School in 2006. OJCS teaches Hebrew, English and French ...

). She then began high school at Machon Sarah High School for Girls, but switched to join the Yitzchak Rabin High School founded by her parents, Ian and Shoshana Kagedan, for its first graduating class.''The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin'
Rabbi Lila Kagedan Breaks New Ground as Clergywoman Committed to Orthodox Judaism
November 23, 2015 Kagedan's father died in 2014 from complications due to

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

References