Forty years ago, the Conservative movement ordained its first female rabbi. Now, roughly half of the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is composed of female rabbis, about 50% of Conservative rabbinical and cantorial students are women, and women also make up about half of Conservative synagogue presidents. These women are rewriting the norms of what leadership looks like; and they show other women that leadership can thrive when collaboration replaces competition.

As the first woman to hold the position of co-senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, the 40th anniversary has been particularly meaningful as I continue to draw strength from the steadfast support of other women clergy. But this wasn’t always the case.

Courtesy/Rabbi Nicole Guzik

Rabbi Nicole Guzik (right) with her best friend from rabbinical school, Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal, now rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City.

When I graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2009, roughly 30% of my classmates were female. We knew we were the token “female rabbi” wherever we went. Congregations at this time were known to ponder whether they were “ready” for a “lady rabbi” or “female cantor.” 

Few colleagues understood what it felt like to dash off the bimah amid congregants seeking face time after services because your child was sick at home, or could understand how physically draining it is to stand through services for two hours straight, six months pregnant but smiling through it all. 

In 2025, women in the rabbinate and cantorate have a different experience. While sexism still certainly exists, most positions are no longer seen as the “woman rabbi” or “female cantor” job. But for years, I’d seen the competition between women in the workplace — women pushing each other down to get premier positions. 

Because of the individuals that came before us, the journey today for women in the rabbinate and cantorate is not as difficult. Perfect, no — but so much better, due to the camaraderie we are choosing. 

Women are choosing to hold one another up; not treat each other as competitors, but as confidantes, mentors, colleagues and friends. In essence, we as women have learned how to create and celebrate sisterhood. 

It was with this mindset that a group of my female friends, rabbis all, decided six years ago to start a WhatsApp group. We are in different places, both physically and in our careers: I am the only Californian, one woman is five years ahead of me in the rabbinate, another lives in Canada, one is the sole clergy in her shul, another is an assistant rabbi. We first came together to address a common issue for working women in male-dominated spaces — how to be productive and accountable while also leading balanced, meaningful lives — but the conversation only expanded from there. 

It may surprise some people to hear that the issues facing women in the rabbinate and cantorate are not so different from the obstacles other female leaders in the workplace encounter. From my experience, women rabbis and cantors still worry about how much or how little maternity leave will be negotiated; whether there is enough time to pump, nurse, feed, etc. between meetings; how to help their children with math homework while also attending a work dinner; and whether we will make it home before our child’s bedtime. Regardless of job description, women in the workforce are still fighting an uphill battle when it comes to achieving balance, as well as breaking glass ceilings regarding equitable pay, maternity leave, image and productivity expectations.

In our WhatsApp group, no topic is off the table. We share guidance on loss, family decisions, aging parents, and congregational demands. One of us might be distraught after a tragic death in our congregation and need guidance on how to pivot to celebrating a bar mitzvah or wedding. Another might be trying to advise her congregants on choosing colleges for their children amid the today’s challenges of being a Jew on campus. One of us is dealing with aging parents with physical ailments while attending to the needs of a robust congregation. And almost every day, we wrestle with the daily struggles of motherhood and wifehood: Am I feeding my family enough? Am I helping them enough? Am I enough for my children, my partner? And the congregations that require and deserve our time, attention and love — are we enough for them?

Alone, these questions bury us; but together, the load becomes bearable, sometimes laughable. We share milestones, fashion choices, funny jokes, missteps and achievements. 

This is true across all professions, particularly those that have been some of the hardest for women to break into, where barriers were the steepest and the most reluctant to allow women in: The greatest gift we, as women, can give each other is the reminder that, through our joys and our sorrows, we are much better together.  

Rabbi Nicole Guzik, a trained marriage and family therapist, is co-senior rabbi at Sinai Temple, one of the largest synagogues in Los Angeles.