Whereas according to The Baltimore Jewish Times of November 27, 2009, Rabbi Jan Caryl Kaufman “had wanted to be a rabbi since her days in junior high school” and became Baltimore’s first female rabbi, ordained at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion on June 10, 1979 and
Whereas Rabbi Kaufman was featured in The Washington Post on March 12, 1985 - “Assembly Admits Women Rabbis” – after she and another reform rabbi had been accepted as members of the Rabbinical Assembly the previous day “by an overwhelming vote” at the RA Convention in Miami and
Whereas Rabbi Kaufman, then a member of the RA, returned to her post as chaplain at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School where she stayed for 10 years; in her dedication to Jewish education helped found the Aleph-Bet Jewish Day School in Annapolis, Maryland and the Solomon Schechter High School of New York, teaching and inspiring countless Jewish students, many of whom became Jewish professionals and colleagues in the RA; and served as rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, Librarian at Adas Israel and Associate Director of Hillel at the University of Maryland and
Whereas Rabbi Kaufman also attended law school at George Washington University where she received her J.D. degree in 1988 and became a member of the bar and
Whereas Rabbi Kaufman joined the staff of the Rabbinical Assembly as Director of Special Projects in 1994, working on conventions, publications, staffing the liturgical publications committees, social justice projects, public policy issues and being a support to the hundreds of members of the Rabbinical Assembly and
Whereas Rabbi Kaufman served as a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the Rabbinic Cabinet of UJA, the New York Board of Rabbis and the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in March 2004 and the Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa from The Jewish Theological Seminary in November 2005 and
Whereas Rabbi Kaufman has devoted herself unstintingly to the well being and advancement of the Jewish people, the Conservative Movement and The Rabbinical Assembly, and in so doing has made her colleagues a part of her family and has become a part of ours.
Therefore be it resolved that we proclaim Rabbi Jan Caryl Kaufman to be a devoted servant of the Jewish people, a woman of valor, our colleague and our dear friend.