By Rabbi Claire Magidovitch Green

What does it feel like to get an invitation from the seminary where I was ordained as a rabbi and am so ashamed of the institution that I cannot open it?

It’s bad enough that I can’t acknowledge my school when people compliment me on my rabbinic skills. When they ask if I went to HUC-JIR (the Reform movement seminary where my father and brother were ordained) or JTS (since I worked for so many Greater Philadelphia Conservative congregations), I can see their shock and embarrassment for me when I mutter, “Recon.”

I get lots of puzzled responses, too: “But you’re such a strong Zionist. You’re clearly proud to have descended from a founding family of Tel Aviv. You are a staunch though not uncritical advocate for the state of Israel. You’re a student in Gra

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