From Odessa, where they expect rabbis to be both Orthodox and male

Julia Grischenko, 28, head of a Reform congregation in Odessa, Ukraine, aspires to be the first female rabbi In Ukraine, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported In August. Crischenko Is facing, to put It mildly, an uphill battle, “in a country where Jews and non-Jews alike expect rabbis to be both Orthodox and male,” wrote reporter Sue Fishman. Crischenko, who studied for two years at Machon, an Institute in Moscow run by the Reform movement. Is now a student at the rabbinical college In Berlin. For the time being she has had to leave her 18-month-old daughter In Odessa with her husband. “A rabbi Is a teacher, and that’s what I want to do/’ she told Fishman. “The young generation, my generation. Is leading our parents back to Judaism. I’m very sure that my daughter will know even more than me, because she’s growing up with It. She was singing ‘Shabbat Shalom’ In the womb.