Frank Litman: A Memoir.
The Girl Rabbi from the Golden West
[Judaica]. Litman, Simon. Ray Frank Litman: A Memoir. Studies in American Jewish History. Number 3. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1957.
8vo.; black-and-white frontispiece portrait of Ray Frank Litman on coated paper; with five black-and-white photographs and one black-and-white illustration on coated paper; beige printed wrappers, glued; American Jewish Historical Society seal printed on upper wrapper; some minor smudges.
First edition, with slip of paper laid in that reads “This book, No. 3, in the series Studies in American Jewish History, is being sent to you with the compliments of the American Jewish Historical Society.” A biography of the preacher, lecturer, and journalist Rachel (“Ray”) Frank Litman, with excerpts from her sermons, letters, and published articles included. Simon Litman, her husband of 47 years, compiled the memoir after Ray’s death in 1948.
Born in San Francisco to orthodox parents, Ray Litman (1861-1948) led a remarkable life “dedicated to the search for truth and beauty” (p. 4) and began her career as a schoolteacher in Nevada. She became increasingly interested in Jewish studies, and after relocating to Oakland, she began conducting Sabbath classes and writing periodicals for the local papers. When the rabbi from a nearby Congregation resigned, Litman was appointed as Superintendent of the school.
The first significant event that garnered Litman national attention was the sermon she delivered on Yom Kippur in Spokane Falls, WA in 1890. Litman was in town on newspaper business and on the eve of Yom Kippur, she discovered that there were no services planned at the synagogue. Litman agreed to deliver a sermon the following night, making history as the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit. News of her sermon traveled quickly and before long, she earned the nickname “The Girl Rabbi of the Golden West.” Litman continued to travel around the country delivering sermons but repeatedly insisted that she did not want to become ordained. Her popularity, however, forced the American Jewry to seriously reconsider the ban on women becoming rabbis.
A firm believer that married women should not work outside the home, Litman advocated the notion that women should become more active in their synagogues and community work. In her Spokane Falls sermon, she said,
From time immemorial the Jewish woman has remained in the background, quite content to let the fathers and brothers be the principals in a picture wherein she shone only by a reflected light…she has gathered strength and courage to come forward in an age of progressive enlightenment to help battle for herself, if necessary…to think that I am tonight the one Jewish woman in the world, maybe the first since the time of the prophets to be called to speak to such an audience as I now see before me, is indeed a great honor. (pp. 9-10)
After her marriage to Professor Simon Litman in 1901, Litman gave up her public speaking career and began assisting Simon in his work at the University of Illinois. In her role as an unofficial advisor to the Jewish students, Litman became a beloved figure on campus and the Litman home was often filled with students discussing current events and Jewish issues. Although the first woman rabbi was not ordained until 1972, Litman’s impact on the Jewish community was profound—she paved the way for Jewish women in the United States to participate more actively in their communities and synagogues. In the epilogue, Anita Libman Lebeson, one of the University of Illinois students who knew Litman well, writes, “There was a moral grandeur about Ray Litman that was derived from the Bible that she loved and knew so well. She had vast angers and boundless flashes of fury against those who oppressed and murdered the Jews…she died like a soldier, weary of a long and soul-searing campaign” (pp. 200-201).
(#5766)
Print Inquire
