Naomi Patz - Married to the Rabbi: Sixty Spouses of Retired Reform Rabbis in Their Own Words

1. How the Book Came About

2. Whither Thou Goest

3. Professor And Rabbis Wife

4. Joy And Sorrow Where Is The Balance?

5. Reflections About Our Ccar Spouse Support Group

6. Four Poems

7. The Rabbis Wife

8. When We Pay Her What We Pay Jimmy

9. From Rabbis Spouse To Rabbi

10. Rabbinic Spouse Memories: The Silly Stuff

11. A Rabbis Child Intermarries: When the Personal and Communal Intersect

12. A Rabbinic Lineage

13. Outside And Inside

14. Remembering Me

15. When You Are A Rabbinic Spouse

16. Rabbis Wife, Loving Partner, Helpmate: Teen Dreams Fulfilled

17. Confessions Of A Male Rabbinic Spouse

18. A Multi-Generational Account

19. A Hillel Way Of Life As A Hillel Rabbis Wife

20. My Supportive Husband

21. Congregation And Community

22. Unanticipated Blessings And Joys: MY LIFE AS A RABBIS WIFE

23. The Glass

24. The Blessings Of A Rabbinic Spouse

25. Reflections On Fifty Years In One Congregation

26. A Challenging Life

27. How I Survived And Thrived As A Rebbetzin

28. The Evolution Of A Rabbinic Spouse

29. I Wouldnt Trade It For Any Other Experience!

30. Two Stories

31. Sixty-Four Years Of My Life

32. Does The Punishment Fit The Crime?

33. Living Our Shared Values

34. A Rebbetzin Remembrance

35. A Moment In Time

36. Reflections Of An Argentinian Reform Rabbis Spouse

37. Becoming A Rabbis Wife And Raising Children In The Rabbinate

38. From Interviews To Chicken Soup

39. From A Small Town To Rebbetzin

40. Rabbinic Musings

41. Ashreinu

42. The Crucible

43. I Loved Being The Wife Of A Rabbi: All the Rest Is Commentary

44. Rabbis Wife

45. She Never Comes To Services, And She Always Sits In The Back

46. Part Time Congregational Life

47. Marrying Religion And Politics

48. A Special Relationship: Retired Conservative and Reform Rabbinic Couples In the Greater Chicago Area

49. My Life As A Rabbis Wife

50. Were A Family: In IT FOR THE LONG HAUL Or, Sometimes We Disagree, But Always Are Connected

51. Youre Welcome

52. Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man Rabbi????

53. Dont Call Me Rebbetzin!

54. Congregations We Served During Our Rabbinic Life

55. Dreams, Disappointments And Fulfillment

56. A Maine Story

57. So, You Are Going To Be A Rebbetzin

58. The Conversion Of Miss Know-It-All

59. ALONG FOR THE RIDE: A Learning Curve

60. Ezer Knegdo

We, the emeritus rabbis and spouses who are members of NAORRR, are a distinctive and, we believe special collectivity. Despite the fact that our organization is called the National Association of Retired Reform Rabbis, rabbis spouses and the surviving spouses of rabbis of the Reform Movement, are fully equal in NAORRR together as participants, as seminar and workshop leaders and taking roles in leading worship services, as well as in payment of dues.

Equal, not hierarchical. A united group.

It is because we are equal partners in NAORRR that NAORRR is the perfect venue for publishing Married to the Rabbi.

Im grateful for having had the opportunity to read the wonderful essays contributed to this collection. They are moving, funny, insightful, and wise, and they include some terrific anecdotes that provide vital texture to what we know about some of the critical moments in American Jewish history over the past seventy years.

Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz is the Provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Irving Lehrman Research Professor of American Jewish History. She also serves as Dean of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School and is the author of the award-winning The Rabbis Wife: The Rebbetzin in American Jewish Life.

Married to the Rabbi contains much more than a bouquet of pleasing reminiscences. These essays are primary sources that document the life of the American rabbinate from the 1950s to the present day. They provide personal insights into a facet of modern Jewish life that until now has been understudied. The contributors offer readers a fascinating look behind the scenes at those who dwell in the public limelight and, in doing so, they enrich our understanding of the rabbis spouse as a significant figure in Jewish life in the voices of those who have lived it.

The American Jewish Archives takes pride in accessioning the entirety of this collection, which will richly benefit future researchers and historians.

Dr. Gary P. Zola, Executive Director, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, & The Edward M. Ackerman Family

Distinguished Professor of the American Jewish Experience and Reform Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Married to the Rabbi is a sometimes delightful, sometimes upsetting, but always interesting view into the world of the Reform rabbis spouse and family. (I say spouse advisedly, because one of the writers is a man.) That world and the role rabbinic spouses play in it too often has been both misunderstood and undervalued. Most of the authors in this volume became rabbis wives when a majority of women were stay-at-home mothers. Some rabbis wives embraced their special spousal role; others tolerated it. Since that era has largely passed, this volume reflects a period of American Jewish life that is already becoming history. Judith Maslin and Naomi Patz have assembled and edited a fascinating volume.

Rabbi Jeffrey Stiffman is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis, Missouri and immediate past president of NAORRR.

In honor of

Rabbi Harry and Jeanne Danziger

by Rabbi Micah Greenstein and Temple Israel

Memphis, Tennessee

In honor of

Rabbi Steven and Senator Joyce Foster

by Rabbi Joe Black and Temple Emanuel

Denver, Colorado

In honor of

Rabbi James and Jane Perman

by the Temple Shalom One Family

Naples, Florida

In honor of

Rabbi Merle and Myra Singer

by Rabbi Dan Levin and Temple Beth El

Boca Raton, Florida

In honor of

Rabbi Jeffrey and Dr. Arlene Rubin Stiffman

by Rabbi Jim Bennett and Congregation Shaare Emeth

St. Louis, Missouri

In honor of

Rabbi Alvin and Barbara Sugarman

by Rabbi Peter Berg and The Temple

Atlanta, Georgia

To Norman and Shim, our beloved spouses