Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 14, 2014

Haim Korsia Appoints Woman To Key Post

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Published November 13, 2014.

(JTA) The first thing Haim Korsia did after becoming chief rabbi of France was give his new office a thorough cleaning.

Next he redecorated to give the space a more modern look, placing his 30-inch model of a nuclear submarine a gift from his previous stint as senior military chaplain amid the volumes of scripture on his bookcase.

But it was what Korsia, 51, did next that convinced many French Jews that this short and energetic man, who assumed the title in June, was serious about modernizing the religious institutions of a crisis-stricken community still reeling from an increase in anti-Semitic violence and scandals involving two of Korsias predecessors.

In July, Korsia appointed a woman, Dolly Touitou, to one of two new positions created to handle complaints against French Jewrys religious services organization a bold move in a predominantly Sephardic community, which has been slower than others to embrace gender egalitarianism. Before 1990, women could not vote in Consistoire elections, nor could they stand for office themselves until 2006, when a French judiciary body overruled the prohibition.

Appointing a woman was a signal of where Rabbi Korsia stands on womens role in the Jewish community, said Rabbi Moche Lewin, an adviser and friend.

Korsia also staked out an unorthodox position on those born to non-Jewish mothers and Jewish fathers, embracing them as seed of Israel even though they are not considered Jewish according to traditional religious law. He also issued a directive against honoring anyone who refuses his wife a religious bill of divorce in response to a scandal that exploded on the watch of his predecessor.

Yet Korsia seems reluctant to overstate his progressive agenda. Thats understandable in a country where chief regional rabbis speak openly about women as duty bound to serve men and where, as recently as 2006, a chief regional rabbi from Strasbourg opposed the election of any woman to a position of leadership within his Orthodox Jewish community.

Go here to read the rest:

France's New Chief Rabbi Embraces Reforms

Category: Sephardic
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