The Women’s League for Conservative Judaism’s logo is a six-branch menorah with a flame in the middle. According to wlcj.org, the flame signifies the role women play as keepers of the flames of mitzvot, family, study, Israel, Torah and community.
Starting July 1, Northeast Philadelphia resident Susan Markowitz will become the keeper of those flames for the Women’s League’s Mid-Atlantic region.
She was installed as incoming president during a ceremony at Ohev Shalom of Bucks County on May 5. The Women’s League supports 400 sisterhoods and synagogue women’s groups, according to wlcj.org.
And as a keeper of those flames, Markowitz, 70, has a specific plan to keep them burning bright. The Adath Israel of the Main Line member talked about what she hopes will be her first big project.
“I hope to be in touch with the universities in our area,” she said, referring to the Mid-Atlantic region of Philadelphia, its four suburban counties, Lancaster, Allentown and South Jersey.
“With all the tumultuous stuff that has been going on, I think some of these students may need our outreach, our help, for camaraderie,” she added, referring to the post-Oct. 7 environment of antisemitism on campus. “We offer all sorts of programs to help them deal with some of these issues.”
The Women’s League is not the organization that fights anti-Israel radicals on campus. Nor is it Chabad or Hillel in terms of its presence as a Jewish safe space.
But what it can do on campus is what it does in the real world: help women deepen their spirituality and connection to the Jewish community. The Women’s League offers Hebrew classes, bat mitzvah classes for women who never got to have one and leadership institutes. Women need not be a synagogue or sisterhood member to join the Women’s League, per Markowitz.
“Student memberships are reduced,” she added.
Mainly, Markowitz wants college women to understand that today’s Conservative movement maintains its adherence to tradition, such as kashrut, while allowing them to participate in rituals as much as men.
“Today’s modern young women who are bettering themselves, educating themselves, would feel comfortable with a movement that is changing with the times,” Markowitz said. “Are we becoming more like the Reform movement? I guess so, but we still maintain kashrut if you want a little more tradition.”
When Markowitz becomes president of the region, she plans on reaching out to Hillels to spread this word.
It shouldn’t be a difficult message to articulate. After all, it’s one she’s lived.
Markowitz grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia. Her family attended Ner Zedek, where her father, Morris Lowenthal, served as president of the men’s club and her mother, Sonia Lowenthal, as president of the sisterhood.
Morris Lowenthal also served as president of the synagogue two or three times, according to his daughter. The father impressed upon his children that it was important to support the synagogue.
Markowitz internalized this lesson, and she ran a similar Jewish household for her son, Andrew, who became a rabbi. Rabbi Andrew Markowitz now helps lead Adath Israel of the Main Line.
At the same time, Markowitz never got to read from the Torah during her bat mitzvah. So, she grew up believing that her movement should change with the times.
“I don’t have to sit separate from my husband at services. I can participate in whatever I want. I think that the rabbis are being trained at our seminaries to be more people-friendly,” she said. “I want to help these women on these campuses understand that you can be halachically traditional to some extent and be comfortable with what you want to take off the tree and what you don’t and still be accepted.”
