Temple welcomes 'Yentl'

Pioneering rabbi comes to Greenport

By Julie Lane  Suffolk Times

What's a girl to do? When you're 17 years old and you know you want to be a rabbi, but Conservative Judaism doesn't ordain women -- you read, you study and you pray -- and if you're fortunate, times change and you get to realize your dream.

It sounds much like the plot of "Yentl," the 1992 film starring Barbra Streisand. But, in fact, it's the real life story of Rabbi Jackie Wexler, the new religious leader at Congregation Tifereth Israel in Greenport.

"I knew without a doubt this is what I was meant to be," says Rabbi Wexler, relaxing in her study last Thursday at the tiny Fourth Street synagogue. Her awakening came when she discovered the library at a Jewish summer camp. As she made her way through the volumes, "There it was; it was like there'd been a piece of me missing all my life," she said.

But unlike Yentl, Rabbi Wexler didn't try to pass herself off as a boy. She did what was expected of her -- married and had children in what she now describes as "this other life." And not only did she have three children of her own, but she fostered 14 others over seven-years.

Fast-forward several years to the early 1990s. Conservative Judaism reversed its stance and she entered Jewish Theological Seminary, becoming one of the first women ordained as a conservative rabbi.

Before she began her rabbinical studies, an early mentor of hers, a rabbi in North Carolina where she was living, gave her a reading list, thinking she would never look at it. How wrong he was. And when he saw how she devoured the material, he invited her to a gathering of the Greater Carolinas Association of Rabbis. Who should she meet there but the associate dean of Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Allan Kensky. He was so impressed with her knowledge and determination that he invited her to have her preliminary interview with him that day. After they spent three hours talking, he "became the wind beneath my wings," says Rabbi Wexler.
Rabbi Kensky mentored her through her rabbinical studies, as did Rabbi William Lebeau, vice chancellor and dean of The Rabbinical School, who will preside at Rabbi Wexler's installation at Tifereth Israel on Aug. 29.

During her seven years of rabbinical schooling, Rabbi Wexler, who was then a divorced mother of three, says she didn't sleep. She would be up studying until 2:30 a.m. and then

Rabbi Jackie Wexler at Congregation Tifereth Israel in Greenport on Tuesday.

Suffolk Times photo by Judy Ahrens

back up with her children at 6:30 a.m. to get them off to school. But what might be a draining experience for many was exhilarating for Rabbi Wexler, who was finally on the road to realizing her dream.

After her ordination, she spent four years leading a small congregation in Tallahassee, Fla. During that time, she was invited to give the opening benediction at a special session of the Florida State Legislature called to decide the 2000 presidential election. Her words were broadcast across the nation, but immediately after the invocation, the session ended as the U.S. Supreme Court opted to take the case that put George W. Bush in the White House.

After Tallahassee, Rabbi Wexler took a job as rabbi at a Hebrew Day School near Orlando. But she realized that she "missed pastoring," missed having her own congregation. That's when she began seeking an assignment and found that Tifereth Israel was looking for a new rabbi.

"I hit the ground running," she says about the new assignment, which brought her to Greenport in June. "I love teaching Talmud [Jewish laws and traditions] and Midrash [interpretations of biblical verses]," she says. She has started classes in basic Judaism and Hebrew and, of course, her personal favorite, Midrash.

While previous Tifereth Israel rabbis have been mostly part-timers who were in Greenport Thursday through Sunday, Rabbi Wexler says her "feet are planted firmly on the ground" full-time in this community. "My focus is on this community and this synagogue," she says.
She needs time to "take in the culture and needs" of the congregation, she says. But she's already in love with the village and the congregants, who have made her feel so at home, she says.

"I was meant to be here; they've embraced me with such warmth and such love," she says.

© 2006 Times-Review Newspapers