Margaret Wenig

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Margaret Moers Wenig (born 1957) is an American

LGBT rights within Reform Judaism.[1][2] Margaret became spiritually aware at an early age. A seminal moment in her development occurred when she was in sixth grade and had a birthday party, to which she invited all her classmates except one boy, who was devastated as a result. She realized the degree to which she had hurt the boy, and this set her on a path of soul searching and religious awareness.[3]

In 1976, she and Naomi Janowitz published Siddur Nashim, which was the first Jewish prayer book to refer to God using female pronouns and imagery.[4]

She graduated from Brown University in 1978,[5][6] and was ordained in 1984.[7]

In 1990, she wrote the sermon “God is a Woman and She is Growing Older”, which has been widely published.[8][9]

In 1995, Wenig, Sharon Kleinbaum, and Russell Pearce sent a resolution asking for support for civil marriage for gay couples to the Reform movement's Commission on Social Action; when it was approved by them, Wenig submitted it to the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which approved it in 1996.

Wenig married Sharon Kleinbaum in 2008; they later divorced.[10][9][11]

In 2015, Wenig became the first Jewish president of the Academy of Homiletics.[12]

Wenig now teaches liturgy and

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.[1]

References