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God Is Still a Woman, Even Older

Says rabbi who gave famous 1990 sermon

by
Sara Ivry
September 01, 2009

The New York Times catches up with Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, a lesbian who gained a measure of fame (or notoriety, depending on your point of view) with her 1990 sermon, “God Is a Woman and She Is Growing Older.” A self-professed “sermon junkie” who now teaches at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College New York campus, she defends her legendary talk against any suggestions it was sacrilege, telling Ralph Blumenthal, “Jewish texts are replete with anthropomorphic images of God. I don’t say God would ever die. I fudged that. Whatever else, I would say God is eternal.” So might be the Times’s interest in Jewish lesbians, if Sunday’s Modern Love column—about a couple challenged by whether they ought to call each other wife—is any indication.

Sara Ivry is the host of Vox Tablet, Tablet Magazine’s weekly podcast. Follow her on Twitter@saraivry.