Forging ground in Judaism

Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

It has been a whirlwind two weeks for Rabbi Yocheved Mintz, having celebrated her first Days of Awe as the senior rabbi of her own synagogue.

On Friday, the morning after Yom Kippur, notes of Mintz's six sermons during the last 10 days sat in piles around her home office in Summerlin, and her van was still filled with food her congregants donated for the homeless and boxes of fliers printed for the Jewish high holy days.

But it was the importance of the last few days that overwhelmed Mintz as she reflected on her responsibilities as the leader of Valley Outreach Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation of about 80 families.

"I really felt the responsibility very heavily as well as the support of those who came before me," Mintz said.

"I prayed to God to help me reach the hearts and souls of the people who are coming to me for spiritual upliftment."

Ordained in May 2004, Mintz, 65, is the only female rabbi in the valley.

The first female rabbi in a line of 18 generations of rabbis within her family, she is launching her rabbinic career when most of her colleagues would normally be considering retirement -- she and her husband, Alan, have four sons and 12 grandchildren.

But Mintz, who as a child said she had as much of a chance of becoming a rabbi as a "trained white horse," sees herself as just one of a new wave of rabbis coming out of seminary.

More than half of those currently training to be rabbis are women, said Rabbi Sanford Askelrad of Congregation Ner Tamid, a Reform synagogue which was the first to hire a female rabbi in the valley some years ago. And he said he is seeing more and more rabbis -- both men and women -- who are deciding to become rabbis as second or third careers.

As women have gained greater equality in the culture, they have gained equality in the synagogue and the church, local Jewish and Christian leaders said. But Mintz points to the play "Fiddler on the Roof," and notes that as the character Tevye says "tradition" has made progress toward equality slow.

Most of Judaism, with the exception of the orthodox movement, allows the ordination of female rabbis and many mainline Christian Protestant denominations also allow female priests or ministers to be ordained.

The Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, most Southern Baptist denominations, many evangelical churches and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not ordain women or allow women to serve as senior ministers.

In the Las Vegas Valley, there are still few women in senior leadership roles within the Jewish and Christian faiths, with the exception of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.

That statewide diocese is led by Bishop Catharine Jefferts-Schori and employs several female priests and deacons in senior roles. Jefferts-Schori is one of nine women out of more than 100 bishops in the United States, the Rev. Barbara Lewis, diocesan secretary and deacon for Grace in the Desert Episcopal Church, said.

Many women in several denominations are part of husband-and-wife leadership teams.

"There is still some resistance in churches, there is a glass ceiling to calling women as senior pastors," said the Rev. Carol Wood, senior pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Las Vegas and one of only three women leaders in her denomination locally. But like Mintz, Wood said she is seeing that change as younger women begin to see more women in leadership roles.

Mintz spent 45 years as a Hebrew teacher and Jewish educator in Chicago but never thought it was possible to become a rabbi. After moving to Las Vegas, she decided to try.

She faced challenges, such as weekly commutes to the Academy for Jewish Religion in California for her classes and a fight against breast cancer during her senior year, but Mintz said she never faced any barriers from the leadership of her faith.

Instead, she has only felt kinship as she shares many of the same concerns as her fellow rabbis in Las Vegas.

Her sermons on Yom Kippur, for instance, covered everything from the need of Jews to be conscious of atrocities such as the genocide in Sudan, to the need to be aware of the narratives of other faiths, to how to ask forgiveness of that relative to whom you have not spoken to in 20 years, Mintz said.

She is also concerned with how to interest her congregants in studying the language and texts of their faith and how to help the many unaffiliated Jews in the area find the community and spirituality they are searching for.

And she trusts that her fellow Jews will hear the "truths" in their tradition, "whether spoken by a male or female."

Christina Littlefield may be reached at (702) 259-8813 or at clittle@ lasvegassun.com.