All of the Above: Single, Clergy, Mother

Aired 2013-14 on ABC. Many female rabbis and cantors in the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements of Judaism face an interesting quandary. On one hand, “Be fruitful and multiply” is the Torah’s first commandment followed later by, “For you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Imagine the dilemma if you wish to be fruitful and holy, but you’re female, a rabbi or cantor…who is single.

All of the Above: Single, Clergy, Mother highlights the stories of four single, female rabbis/cantors who adopt children or attempt medical procedures to create families of their own. A revealing new film, it explores the choices demanded of Jewish women and the often-competing desires of motherhood and faith.

More than simply a niche film about the confluence of circumstances for four specific Jewish women, All of the Above is a larger rumination on both what it means to be a Jewish-American woman today who wants to “have it all,” (spiritually, professionally and emotionally), and an object lesson for Jewish girls on the rightness and humanity of such a desire.

Rabbi Lisa Gelber, Associate Dean, The Rabbinical School, JTS Rabbi Felicia Sol, B’nai Jeshurun, New York Cantorial Student Basya Schechter, Musician/Composer, Pharaoh’s Daughter Rabbi Julie Greenberg, Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir, Philadelphia

All of the Above: Single, Clergy, Mother reveals the complicated, intriguing, sometimes frustrating, and ultimately fulfilling journey that is both unique and common to all Jewish- American women: a journey worthy of exultation and one that will define the future of Jewish women for years to come.