How many West Virginia-born Jews-by-choice with degrees from Unitarian divinity schools are there in the rabbinate anyway?
Well, this week, there’s one more.
Somewhere in the past few decades, Julia Watts Belser’s quest to become a rabbi was upgraded from improbable to implausible to inevitable.
The soft-spoken 29-year-old with the radiant smile was born in the Mountain State into a completely non-religious Christian family. And after graduating from Cornell, she did indeed head to divinity school in Berkeley.
But two degrees weren’t enough. So she started a U.C. Berkeley Ph.D. program in Talmud (which, “God-willing,” she will complete next year).
And, after years of taking weekend flights to Los Angeles, Watts Belser was ordained as a rabbi on Monday at the non-denominational Academy for Jewish Religion.
“Since my teens I’ve been interested in Judaism … I love the Jewish tradition. I love the depth and breadth and ever-evolving nature of Jewish tradition. So I love Talmud and I love Jewish feminism and I feel that working as a rabbi gives me a chance to draw — ” she takes a long overdue breath ” — from so much depth.”
Watts Belser — who has converted to Judaism not once but twice, in a Reform ceremony and a Conservative process with Rabbi Stuart Kelman of Berkeley’s Netivot Shalom — wears the owlish spectacles one would expect of anyone who sacrificed their eyes to stoke their love of Talmud. She looks her 29 years and is easy to spot in a crowd with her colorful knit head covering.
She’s also distinctive because of her ever-present cycling gloves. Those gloves help her get a firm grip on the tires of her wheelchair.
“One of the ways the disability story gets told is a triumph-over-adversity story. And I don’t like that story. I think it’s a story celebrating a few people with disabilities overcoming the odds and it trivializes people’s lives. Everyone I knew at the Academy for Jewish Religion was struggling with something and working hard to make it through school. I don’t see myself as being in any way particularly different,” she said.
Watts Belser was born with cerebral palsy. For most of her life she was able to walk, but in her undergraduate years, she underwent a sudden and unexplained change — “Life happens, you know?” — and has been using a wheelchair for the past decade.
“Disability is an important thing in my life, but I don’t think it’s ‘The Story.’ … On the other hand, yeah, I celebrate the fact that I am very proud of this moment in my life. I’m really glad it’s possible and I’m grateful to everyone who helped me make it possible. I’m comfortable with my disability. It’s a fact of life for me and part of who I am.”
While she was working with Berkeley professor Daniel Boyarin on her dissertation, weekends were spent, invariably, at the airport. She took portions of one semester off when she developed shoulder problems (Berkeley is hilly), but, by and large, she racked up the frequent flier miles and burned the midnight oil.
Next year, instead of repeatedly flying to Los Angeles, Watts Belser plans on taking the Amtrak to Davis, where she’ll be a lecturer in U.C. Davis’ Jewish studies program (and a professor when that dissertation is signed off). She’ll also be the West Coast organizer for Nehirim, a spiritual organization aiming to provide a safe place for gay and lesbian Jews.
But, most of all, she’ll be where she wants — “serving the Holy.”
Years ago, “When I went to my first Shabbat service, it was like coming home,” she recalls, with that ever-present smile.
“I think there’s deep wisdom in Judaism. And you’ve got to do what you love. And I love this.”