Source: The Boston Globe
On March 5, 2000, The Boston Globe published an article on Shifra Penzias, a female rabbi who is rejuvenating the 70-year old Temple Tifereth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Malden, MA. The 35-year-old Penzias, who is studying for her doctorate in Jewish Thought at Brandeis University, has attempted to bridge the older and younger generations of congregants at Temple Tifereth. Penzias stated: "This congregation has a wonderful older population - very wise, down-to-earth people...And it also has a younger, energetic group of people that I would characterize as being very intelligent and more oriented toward their young children...So one of the things I've done is brought in more services that are geared toward the younger population while at the same time drawing on the wisdom of the older population." Penzias has introduced programs that include more music, dance, and storytelling, while also providing a more informal tone to certain services and using gender-neutral words in services. The temple's president, Edwin B. Andrews, stated: "I think most people feel she's brought in a breath of fresh air and energy and enthusiasm and new ideas that is really making people feel good about the congregation and has made us realize some of our potential." Penzias is one of a growing number of female rabbis in the United States. Among the members of the Reform national rabbinical association, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, there are 305 women out of 1700. The Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly counts 115 of its 1450 members as women.