Ray Frank
"Latter-day Deborah" challenged the traditional role of Jewish
women.
Excerpted with permission from the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA). For more information on Ray
Frank, go to JWA's Women of Valor
online exhibit.
Born in San Francisco on April 10,
1861, Rachel ("Ray") Frank was the daughter of Polish immigrants,
Bernard and Leah Frank, whom Ray later described as "Orthodox Jews of
liberal mind." Her father, a peddler and Indian agent, claimed descent
from the eighteenth-century Jewish sage, the Vilna Gaon.
Early Influences
Soon after her graduation from
Sacramento High School in 1879, Frank moved to the silver-mining town of Ruby
Hill, Nevada, where she taught public school. Although nearby Eureka, where
Frank's sister Rosa lived, had over 100 Jewish inhabitants and the first
synagogue in Nevada, Ruby Hill was home to few Jews, as were the western
territories overall. The contrast between the non-Jewish surrounding
environment and the Jewish household in which she was raised provided rich food
for Frank's fertile mind.
Frank's time in Nevada set the
stage for her subsequent career in many ways. Six years as a teacher gave her a
self-assurance and confidence as a public speaker that would impress subsequent
observers. She also published her first article, about education, in the Daily
Elko Independent.
Establishing a Reputation
In 1885, with the mining industry
in decline, Frank left Nevada and returned to her family in Oakland,
California. She broadened her own education by enrolling in courses in
philosophy at the University of California-Berkeley. She also began working in
the Sabbath School of Oakland's First Hebrew Congregation, transferring her
already established teaching skills to a Jewish setting.
Frank proved extremely popular as
a religious-school teacher. She soon attracted a wide following of adults as
well as children to her classes, to such an extent that when the rabbi and
school superintendent resigned, the congregation invited her to become
principal.
Frank's work as a correspondent
for several San Francisco and Oakland newspapers added to her growing
reputation. She also began to use letters to the editors of national Jewish
publications to express her ideas about the state of American Jewry, increasing
her visibility in Jewish circles.
In the fall of 1890, Frank's
newspaper work took her to the Northwest to visit a number of the region's
booming new towns. During this tour, an event occurred that transformed Frank
into the Jewish community's first "lady preacher."
Arriving in Spokane, Washington on
the eve of the High Holy Days, Frank was shocked to find that, despite the
presence of many affluent Jews, the town had no synagogue. Apparently the
community's Orthodox and Reform elements were so divided that they were
unwilling to join together for services. When Frank expressed her dismay, a
prominent member of the community--knowing her by reputation--offered to
arrange for Rosh Hashanah services if she would give a sermon. Frank readily
agreed.
"The Maiden in the Temple"
The impassioned sermon she
delivered after the service made a deep impression on the audience. Speaking on
"The Obligations of a Jew as Jew and Citizen," she entreated her listeners--for
their own sake and that of their children--to overcome the differences between
Reform and Orthodox ritual and to form a permanent congregation. Frank so
impressed Spokane's Jews that they invited her to remain throughout the High
Holidays. In the sermon she delivered on the eve of Yom Kippur, she elaborated
on her earlier theme. "Drop all dissension about whether you should take
off your hats during the service and other unimportant ceremonials," she
implored her listeners, "and join hands in one glorious cause."
Career of a Lady Preacher
Soon, the American Jewish world
was abuzz with the news that a woman - a "latter-day Deborah" - had
transcended the traditional boundaries of the female sphere and stepped up to
the pulpit. The 1890s were a whirlwind for Frank, who became "the most
talked of Jewess of to-day." Frank was soon launched into a new career. As
articles about her groundbreaking preaching appeared in both Jewish and
non-Jewish publications across the country, more and more communities wished to
hear for themselves the newest sensation in American Jewry.
Frank traveled up and down the
Pacific coast, addressing enthusiastic audiences along the way. In addition to
giving lectures to B'nai B'rith lodges, literary societies, and synagogue women's
groups, she spoke in both Reform and Orthodox synagogues, giving sermons,
officiating at services, or, as at San Francisco's Temple Emanuel in 1895,
reading Scripture. Unfortunately, because contemporary reports do not indicate
exactly what her "officiating" entailed, the extent to which Frank
ever took on the strictly religious functions of a rabbi remains unclear. Many
of Frank's discourses, such as "The Prayers that are Heard" and
"The Sounding of the Shofar," dealt with deeply religious subjects.
But even her talks on cultural, historical, and artistic images were suffused
with a profound spirituality, as Frank explored the connections between God and
art, music, or nature.
The First Woman Rabbi?
Not content with the novelty of Frank's position as
"the first woman since Deborah to preach in a synagogue," the press
began to speculate about her rabbinical aspirations. Despite Frank's
protestations that she had none, rumors swirled. The
buzz about Frank's potential ordination increased in 1893 when she enrolled in
courses in Jewish ethics and philosophy at Hebrew Union College, the Reform
seminary in Cincinnati.
Although headlines began to refer
to Frank, incorrectly, as the first woman rabbi, and she was reportedly offered
several pulpits, Frank insisted that she had never had any desire for
ordination. She spent only a few months at HUC; even had she remained, she
likely would not have been ordained. Opposition to woman rabbis remained
strong, and not until 1972 would Sally Priesand become the first woman rabbi
ordained by a theological seminary.
Jewish Women's Congress
When Hannah Greenebaum Solomon and
her colleagues began to organize the 1893 Jewish Women's Congress, held in
conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair, their eye fell naturally on Frank.
As a delegate, Frank took her place among the most illustrious women in
American Jewry.
Appropriately, Frank acted as the
Congress's spiritual leader, delivering the opening prayer and the final
benediction. In her paper "Woman in the Synagogue," she presented a
subtle but effective argument in favor of Jewish women's emancipation. While
praising highly Jewish women's traditional roles as wives and mothers, she also
emphasized women from Jewish history whose activities went beyond the norm. By
stressing that learned women in leadership roles have always been part of the
Jewish experience, Frank both validated her own actions and hoped to inspire
her listeners to greater study and involvement.
Marriage and New Directions
Ray was married to Simon Litman on
August 14, 1901. After living briefly in Paris, where Simon worked as a
translator, the Litmans returned to California in 1902, and Simon began
teaching marketing and merchandising at the University of California-Berkeley.
Holding to her often-expressed
belief that married women should not work outside the home, Ray did not return
to her life as a preacher and lecturer. Even the articles she wrote for the San
Francisco Chronicle had become more prosaic. Ray occupied her time keeping
house and helping Simon in his work.
Later Years
In the years after the Litmans
returned to the United States, Ray was often conscious of the difference
between her past acclaim and her present anonymity, and despite her
convictions, she missed the respect and praise that had been heaped upon her.
The contrast made her uncomfortable in California, and when Simon was offered a
job at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1908, the Litmans were
ready to move.
Away from California, Ray regained
her vitality. Although she gave occasional lectures at venues around the
Midwest, her life became focused on her local community. She was particularly
eager to work with Jewish students, inviting them into her home and leading a
student study circle on post-biblical Jewish history. She and Simon regularly
attended meetings and functions of the small Jewish student groups that existed
on campus and were active in the formation of the Hillel movement, which
originated at the University of Illinois. Ray also helped to organize the Sinai
Temple Sisterhood and served as its president for 15 years. Today, the library
at Sinai Temple is dedicated to the Litmans, testimony to the mark they left on
their Jewish community
Legacy
Ray Frank Litman died on October
10, 1948. Her lifelong enthusiasm for Judaism and tireless work to bring people
into the circle of Jewish life left their mark both on those immediately
surrounding her and on American Jewry at large. Her words had moved several
congregations to overcome differences and "join hands in one glorious
cause."
Although Frank's experiences were
but one step along the long road to the ordination of women, "the Girl
Rabbi of the Golden West" played a pivotal role by reinvigorating and
redirecting an ongoing conversation about Jewish women's roles. Jewish women
had already demonstrated their importance to communal life over the course of
the nineteenth century; Frank's unprecedented presence in the pulpit
demonstrated the contribution they could make to religious leadership as well.
While subsequent pioneers in the field would face their own challenges and
opposition, never again would they be called "the first woman since
Deborah to preach in a synagogue," for Frank had trod that path before
them.
