History
The Rabbinical Assembly was founded in 1901 as the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS). Henry M. Speaker served as the first president. In 1918, the association changed its name to the Rabbinical Assembly, opening itself up to rabbis ordained at institutions other than JTS.
The longest-serving president of the Rabbinical Assembly was Wolfe Kelman, who accepted the post in 1951 and continued in the post until 1989.
In 1985, the RA admitted its first female member, Amy Eilberg, the first female ordainee at JTS. It immediately proceeded to admit Rabbis Jan Caryl Kaufman and Beverly Magidson, who had been ordained at Hebrew Union College. By 2010, 273 of the 1648 members of the Rabbinical Assembly were women.
In 1989, upon Wolfe Kelman's retirement, Joel H. Meyers became executive director of the RA. In 1991, Meyers was appointed executive vice president, and he served in this role until his retirement in 2008.
In October 2008, Julie Schonfeld was named as the new executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, making her the first female rabbi to serve in the chief executive position of an American rabbinical association.
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“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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