Historic chuppah as two women rabbis marry
FIFTEEN years after a landmark decision in Judaism’s Conservative movement that paved the way for gay and lesbian students to enter its rabbinical schools and for rabbis to perform same-sex weddings, history has been made in what is believed to be the first ceremony in which two rabbis married each other.
Rabbi Ariella Rosen and Rabbi Becca Walker tied the knot in Massachusetts last month with yet another queer woman rabbi, Megan GoldMarche, officiating.
“It feels like we shouldn’t be groundbreaking,” Walker told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Until recently, Walker, 33, was the assistant rabbi at Toronto’s Beth David congregation; Rosen, 35, is senior Jewish educator at Hillel Ontario.
They met at a Rabbinical Assembly retreat in May 2018 for early-career women rabbis in Connecticut.
On October 24, they had an egalitarian ceremony in which some blessings were changed to say “bride and bride”, and each woman broke a glass. There were around 100 guests, including – they estimate – 19 rabbis, one cantor and one rabbinical student.
Speaking of the optics of a queer woman rabbi marrying two of her queer women colleagues, Walker said, “I’m happy to have more people see this, as it makes people feel there’s a place for them, too.”
comments