WORCESTER, Mass. — Rabbi Aviva Fellman says it’s one “happy joke” in the local Jewish community.

Congregation Beth Israel has been “taken over” by women, she said, with various ladies on the bima, or pulpit, as of late. And Beth Israel isn’t the only temple now led by women – at the newly integrated Temple Emanuel Sinai, the rabbi, cantor and both co-presidents are all female. At Beth Israel, women now serve as rabbi, cantor, president and director of operations.

Coincidentally, both Rabbi Fellman, 32, and the rabbi at Emanuel Sinai, Valerie Cohen, 43, started in their new roles in July. The two women are joining forces to extend their message to the Jewish community as a whole across Worcester and the region, too.

The pair say it may be unusual to see a woman in the highest leadership role at a temple. While they’ve had experiences that shed light on the discrimination some women in the position still face around the country, they both said Worcester has been extremely welcoming.

“There’s that sense of belonging and that sense of pride. That’s another reason we feel so welcome,” Rabbi Fellman said. “We’ve joined their family and they opened up the door to welcome us in.”

Rabbi Cohen previously served at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi. She said at another temple where she worked with a male rabbi, people would often go to him first with issues or concerns. Rabbi Fellman, who came from Oceanside, New York, where she worked as associate rabbi and director of Congregational Educational and Jewish Learning at the Oceanside Jewish Center, said she spent some time in Israel. Abroad, she said, there was some interest from others as to why she was wearing a yarmulke on her head, a garment traditionally reserved for men.

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“I know (being a female rabbi) is becoming less of an issue. … It’s less of a hot topic,” Rabbi Fellman said, “but there’s still not full egalitarianism. …. The word ‘rabbi’ means teacher, and traditionally in our lives teachers are female. If you want someone who is incredibly nurturing, supportive and capable and a multitasker extraordinaire, it makes sense. There wouldn’t be a reason why that person wouldn’t be a woman.”

Rabbi Cohen, who was ordained in 1999, has another challenge ahead of her, following the joining of the former Temple Emanuel and Temple Sinai. The two temples came together in a full integration in July 2013, and one of the new rabbi’s goals is to work on uniting the two further. She said in the near future, there will also be a large renovation of the former Temple Sinai site on Salisbury Street, where Emanuel Sinai is now housed. The building previously used by Temple Emanuel on May Street will be sold.

“The key is creating a space that is Temple Emanuel Sinai,” Rabbi Cohen said. “That is, (to) really make it our space as a full congregation.”

Temple Emanuel Sinai has 450 families and is growing in size. Beth Israel has about 250 families.

The two women say they speak almost weekly going over their plans for the future of the Jewish community in Worcester and beyond. They say they find support in one another, especially since Rabbi Fellman, who is in her third year in the rabbinate, is the first female rabbi to serve at Congregation Beth Israel, the conservative Jewish temple.

Rabbi Cohen said Emanuel Sinai, a reform congregation, has previously had female rabbis, so she “didn’t need to break that ground.”

“What’s interesting, I think, is school did not prepare me for the real world,” she said, reflecting on her time as a female rabbi in the last 15 years. “In school, it was more, ‘It’s an equal playing field and the woman before you have blazed the trail.’ Then you get out there and it’s like, ‘Wow. No.’ … The impact it had on me wasn’t discouraging as much as, ‘There’s work to be done.’ ”

She noted having an “extraordinary” number of women on the bima shows the progressiveness of the Worcester community. Rabbi Fellman noted both congregations are excited the two rabbis are talking to one another and collaborating.

“There’s that partnership on a clergy level,” she said. “It’s refreshing.”


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