AJRCA Spotlight: Rabbi Yocheved Mintz

When I was five years old, I wanted to be four things: A teacher, an actress, a rabbi, and a trained white horse, and, in 1945, my chances of becoming a rabbi were about as possible as that of becoming a trained white horse.

My grandfather, Rabbi Israel Porath, was the head of the Cleveland Orthodox rabbinate, and three of my uncles were rabbis, at that time, and I admired how people would come to them with sh’ylos (questions), how fascinating their libraries were, and how wise they were. Ahh, if only I could be a tip-tippah (droplet) as educated as they…but, it seemed highly unlikely, as it would not be until 1972 that women would be able to be ordained as rabbis in the United States. And by that time, I had graduated the University of Chicago, was married to Alan Mintz, M.D., was the mother of four sons, a teacher, an interior designer (so I could afford to teach Hebrew) and very involved in the community (including theater, Zionist activities, and educational enterprises). Dreams of becoming a rabbi, were and remained on the back burner for another three decades.

In 2000, my husband and I had moved from Chicago to Las Vegas, where he had established the Cenegenics Center for Age-management Medicine, and I was struggling to reestablish myself. I received a call from Etty Dolgin, my former Chicago teaching partner (with whom I had co-founded the Moadon Kol Chadash, a Hebrew school based on the success of informal Jewish camping philosophies, and Gan Gani, an immersive Hebrew language pre-school for ages 6 months through pre-kindergarten). Etty asked me if I wanted to go to the Poconos to co-lead a seminar teaching rabbinical students Hebrew. I happily accepted the challenge but was curious about the task and the school. After all, wouldn’t one expect young rabbis-to-be to be knowledgeable in Hebrew? It turned out to be that the students were hardly young, many of them coming to their would-be rabbinical careers as third or fourth careers, and there was indeed, a wide span of Hebrew knowledge. But at that seminar there were two visitors, one Rabbi Jack Schechter, an administer at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, a newly established rabbinical school in Los Angeles and Miriam Hamrell, a student in the first class of AJRCA. I was intrigued and asked if I could come to L.A. and sit in on a class…after all, it was checking off several longed-for rabbinical school features…it looked like it would be ideal for a second (third or fourth) career and it was trans-denominational, something that I had been looking for most of my life. I made an appointment to visit the school, and within ten minutes of sitting in on the class, I knew it was the answer to my life-long dream.

I went to my husband and asked him what he would think about my commuting to Los Angeles for however long it would take me to become a rabbi. He immediately responded: “You put me through medical school; it’s your turn now.” I responded: “Aren’t you even going to miss me?” (He got a lot of mileage out of that over the years.)

My years at AJRCA may have been the happiest years of my life…I was immersed in studying, with the most amazing teachers and equally amazing fellow students. It was an environment of mutual support and I loved it. In my senior year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent 6 months of chemotherapy, had several surgeries, including a double mastectomy and a reconstructive procedure…all the while carrying a full load of classes, doing an internship, and writing my senior thesis. I felt so supported that I wonder if I could have made it through the year if I had not been blessed to be at AJRCA. When I received smicha in 2004, in the second graduating class of the school’s history, my family came in from all over the country, and, needless to say, there wasn’t a dry-eye in the house. At the age of 63, I was a rabbi.

I gave myself a year of living post-school and post-cancer and realized that, although I did not have a congregation yet, I was actually serving the community at large—perhaps the largest “congregation” of all, as the people who were contacting me were those who had fallen through the cracks, those who had no support systems. It was a valuable experience, as I quickly learned how to navigate the various resources of the Las Vegas Jewish community, and, the following year, was hired as Rabbi of Valley Outreach Synagogue (which we later renamed Congregation P’nai Tikvah). Over the ensuing years, Iserved as President of the Board of Rabbis and eventually became a Board member of the Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Services Agency, and the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada, as well as serving on the Board of AJRCA, itself. I also joyfully mentored several people who have become musmachot of AJRCA or are currently in the school.

My teachers became my friends and colleagues, and my fellow students remain my best friends to this day. My congregation gave me purpose, as did my work with the various Boards, especially when I suddenly lost my husband in 2007.

As a long-time member of the Board of AJRCA, I have witnessed the school’s growth and response to challenges, and look forward to witnessing the manner in which it grows in the years to come. A few years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, I retired and recently moved back to the Chicago area to be closer to my family (including 9 great-grandchildren).

When I was five years old, I wanted to be four things: A teacher, an actress, a rabbi, and a trained white horse. Three out of four’s not too bad.