CCAR News - May 2008 - (Page 11) PROGRAMS Preparing for Employment Contract Negotiations (Continued from page 3) WOMEN S RABBINIC WRN ’ Prioritize your interests. Which of your objectives matter most? Is your chief concern salary improvement? Increasing the Congregation’s pension contribution? Or including post-retirement benefits such as lifetime health insurance or convention allowances? Make a list in priority order of the contract improvements you hope to negotiate. Anticipate the Congregation’s reaction. Look at your upcoming negotiations through the eyes of those representing the Congregation’s interests. What are the Temple’s concerns/objectives? How will it view your proposals? Obviously, by considering the Congregation’s likely positions on issues in advance you will be better equipped to answer questions, formulate or modify proposals, and make a compelling case in support of your objectives. The items on this checklist should be given careful consideration before beginning negotiations. A well-prepared rabbi is far more likely to conclude contract negotiations successfully with a minimum amount of angst. Michael Gan is a labor lawyer in Washington, DC, one of several lawyers who regularly assist rabbis with negotiations, contracts, and disputes. The information contained in this article must not be used as legal advice. As the specific circumstances of each case vary, CCAR Executive Vice President, Rabbi Steven A. Fox, always encourages rabbis to seek the assistance of a professional in planning for and negotiating a contract — either as an advisor behind the scenes or as lead negotiator. NETWORK Dear Friends, W e enjoyed seeing so many of you at our WRN dinner at the CCAR convention. For us it was a real high point. At the last minute, we were able to invite two amazing women who are at the cutting edge of work on the issues of gender in the Jewish communal work-place. Shifra Bronznick and Didi Goldenhar joined us in Cincinnati for a probing look at the issues of gender, and to glean from us how this issue manifests itself in our dayto-day work, in our advancement, and in our advocacy for women rabbis in our movement. We were able to give all dinner participants a copy of the book Shifra and Didi wrote, along with Marty Linsky, Leveling The Playing Field: Advancing Women in Organizational Life (available on Amazon.com). We also gave copies of the book to our CCAR leadership. We know that this presentation by Shifra and Didi will push us to engage our movement in addressing gender-based advancement and salary/benefit inequities. This issue is being addressed by the newly formed Task Force on Gender in the Rabbinate, chaired by former WRN co-president Judy Shanks and Josh Zweiback. We welcome your feedback on our dinner, and hope that you will share some of your post-convention thoughts with us. Plans are proceeding for our next WRN convention in March, 2009, immediately following the CCAR convention. The CCAR convention concludes the afternoon of Sunday, March 1, and the WRN will begin that afternoon or evening, concluding Tuesday, March 3. Janet Liss is chairing the program committee, and we welcome your suggestions and ideas. Just as our London convention was an amazing opportunity to meet our European and British colleagues, we hope that this convention will be the same for our Israeli colleagues. There are now over 20 women who are Reform rabbis in Israel! It is crucial that we travel to be with them, get to know them, study with them, and learn how to best support each other in our work. We look forward to being with you next year. Please be in touch with us with your questions or concerns. We welcome your interest and encourage your input! Shalom uvracha, Sue Levi Elwell and Mary Zamore, Co-Presidents slelwell@urj.org zamorem@comcast.net Jackie Koch Ellenson, Director Jackie@womensrabbinicnetwork.org DOCUMENTING THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE RABBINATE O ur own Sally Priesand, together with Sandy Eisenberg Sasso (the first woman ordinee of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College), and Amy Eilberg (the first woman ordinee of the Jewish Theological Seminary) formally inaugurated a pioneering historical initiative at the Alumni Luncheon held during the recent CCAR Convention in Cincinnati. The project will be called Documenting the History of Women in the Rabbinate. This effort will result in the creation of what we expect will be the world’s largest archival repository on the history of women in the rabbinate. This collection will be housed at our own Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati (AJA). The AJA will be working with an advisory committee of nearly a dozen interested colleagues. These colleagues will keep the CCAR informed of the project’s progress. The Women’s Rabbinic Network and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association have already passed resolutions pledging their support to this endeavor, and it is our hope that the Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism will also agree to collaborate in the coming months. Essentially, the AJA is seeking to assemble the papers of women rabbis as well as a wide variety of related historical records pertaining to women in the rabbinate including reflections from male rabbis and lay leaders whose congregations have been served by female rabbis. These primary source documents will be preserved in perpetuity and made widely accessible to the general public for research purposes. Sally Priesand and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso have already agreed to place their professional papers in the AJA. Sally made her first contribution to the collection at the Alumni Luncheon when she donated a scrapbook filled with remarkable documents including her letter of admission to HUC. Both Sandy and Amy also expressed their support by contributing important papers to the collection. In addition, our colleague, Joan Friedman, has already begun an Oral History Project, interviewing female rabbis and recording their stories for future generations. Sally’s retirement from her congregation in July of 2006 brought the importance of beginning an archival initiative such as this into bold relief. We aspire to create a historical repository that will provide future historians and researchers with the historical tools they will need to reconstruct the ways in which women rabbis have redefined the modern experience of an ancient tradition. Our colleague, Gary Zola, Executive Director of the AJA, has noted that “this project may very well represent one of the most significant historical initiatives of our generation. From its inception, the AJA has functioned as a national archival repository for American Jewry and, as such, the AJA is uniquely qualified to preserve the historical legacy of women in the rabbinate.” Those interested in learning more about this endeavor should feel free to contact The Marcus Center (www.AmericanJewishArchives.org). 11 http://Amazon.com http://www.AmericanJewishArchives.org
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