Interfaith Celebration of Women’s Ordination hosted by Temple David in Monroeville

The first woman in the United States to be ordained as a rabbi by a rabbinical seminary was Sally Jane Priesand, in 1972.

A few years later, a middle school student at the time in Schenectady, N.Y., contemplated the possibility of joining those ranks.

“I was aware that there were female rabbis, not a lot of them,” she recalled. “My rabbi, who actually was born in Hungary and somehow survived the (Second World) War — his family did not — was terrifically supportive of my thoughts of going to rabbinical school.”

The early support and subsequent work toward her goal culminated in 1994 with Barbara Symons’ ordination. Since 2006, she has been rabbi of Temple David in Monroeville as the first woman to lead the congregation long-term.

To commemorate the golden anniversary of Priesand setting the precedent, Temple David hosted a Celebration of Women’s Ordination, albeit a year after the half-century mark, on June 1. Sponsors for the gathering were the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium and Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania.

In December 2021, Symons notified the Rev. Liddy Barlow, Christian Associates executive minister, about the approaching anniversary, asking about the potential for some type of interfaith recognition.

“It happened that she called me that day while I was driving to a meeting of the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of a group called the International Association of Women Ministers,” Barlow recalled, and she promptly shared Symons’ idea. “There was so much enthusiasm from the very beginning.”

Although it took a while for arrangements to come together, more than 30 women faith leaders attended the event at Temple David. The occasion partly served as a learning experience.

“We started with a Jewish prayer experience, because the Christian pastors expressed interest in being a part of Jewish prayer. The Torah portion that week was the one that included the Priestly Benediction,” she said about the passage in Numbers 6:24-26 that starts, “May God bless you and keep you.”

“So they could see it in the Torah scroll, and it was chanted and translated.”

Conversations among participants followed, addressing various topics relevant to female clergy.

“Then there were opportunities for some laughter about ridiculous stories that women have had to face,” Symons said, with a prize awarded to the Rev. Jean Henderson for the most preposterous such tale.

As for Symons’ particular situation, “The joke is: What kind of job is that for a nice Jewish girl?”

For lunch, guests were treated to homemade Jewish cuisine, and the day concluded with a Christian prayer.

“It was really an occasion where people had this central piece of their identity in common, this experience of being an ordained woman,” Barlow said, and for many of the participants: “These were first encounters, but we didn’t stay strangers for long. It was easy connections to make, because we had so much experience in common, even if we’d never met before.”

The East Liberty resident was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 2008, as part of what she calls the “second generation” of the proliferation of female pastors starting around the 1960s.

“So many doors had been opened for me,” she said. “And so for me, that’s always been a point of interest, recognizing and paying tribute to those women who came along and opened those doors, and then also doing what I can to make sure that door stays open for others.”

The door seems to be open for future variations of the June 1 event.

“We didn’t go into it with the intention of having it be more than just a one-time gathering. But as it continued, more and more people started to say, ‘We should really do this again,’” Barlow said. “In the emails that have been exchanged afterward, there’s a lot of acclamation for the idea of repeating. So I know I feel hopeful that this was not just that one-time thing.”

Symons concurred.

“Over and over, they were saying, ‘We should do this again.’ That’s a sign of success, right there,” she said.

She met her husband, Rabbi Ron Symons, during the first week of rabbinical school. He serves as senior director of Jewish Life for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, where he founded the Center for Loving Kindness.

In April, Barbara announced to her congregation the couple’s intention to relocate, with her planning to stay at Temple David until next June, 18 years after joined as rabbi.

“The Hebrew letters for the number 18 spell out ‘life,’” she said. “So it’s a celebration.”