Rabbi Wolfe Kelman; Leader in Efforts to Ordain Women

Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, who worked primarily behind the scenes of the Jewish community yet whose efforts on behalf of Conservative Judaism helped pave the way for the ordination of women, has died at age 66.

Kelman died Tuesday of cancer at the New York University Medical Center, said a colleague, Rabbi Julra Harlow.

Known as “a rabbi’s rabbi,” Kelman never led a congregation but was a major force in the Conservative movement, the largest of Judaism’s three major branches. As the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, he was mentor to hundreds of rabbis, guiding them spiritually and pragmatically.

During the 1960s, he was among the Jewish leaders who participated in civil rights marches with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the South.

Kelman was born in Vienna and moved to Canada with his family as a young boy. His father, Orthodox Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kelman, died when Wolfe was 13. Left with six children, his mother stepped into the role of community leader in Toronto, where she offered religious and personal guidance.

“It was her example that made me believe women could function as rabbis,” Kelman said years later. She remained Orthodox, however, throughout her life.

Women were first ordained in Conservative Judaism in 1985.

The standing of rabbis improved markedly during Kelman’s years at the Rabbinical Assembly. But he refused to take credit for being any more than someone who eased the way for others. “The status of rabbis improved because of the hundreds of good rabbis out there,” he told the New York Times last year.