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Changing Synagogue Roles
P A G E 2
How have women’s roles in American synagogues changed?
For generations, Jewish women contributed their handiwork to synagogues. But they were not counted in the minyan (the ten-person quorum required for communal prayer) and sat apart from men during services.
Beginning in the 1880s, the Reform movement in America included women in the minyan, allowed them to sit with their families, encouraged them to attend services and teach in religious schools, and provided a religious ceremony (Confirmation) for their daughters.
top photo: Torah mantle, United States, 1930. This Torah mantle was embroidered by Sarah Lee Ginsberg for a Torah scroll that her uncle Harry Ginsberg presented to B’nai Israel Congregation in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Courtesy of Dr. William Ginsberg, St. Petersburg, Florida.
inset photo, top left: Beth El Synagogue Confirmation class, Minneapolis, MN, 1935. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
inset photo, middle left: Women’s balcony, Virginia, MN, about 1980. Traditionally, women and men occupied separate sections in the synagogue. Usually women sat in balconies such as this one. In Orthodox synagogues today they often sit on the same level as men, but behind a screen. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
inset photo, bottom right: Ticket to women’s balcony for High Holiday services, Duluth, MN, 1967. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
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