The Women of Faith panel held Tuesday in the Eastern Michigan University Student Center brought together women of different beliefs sharing their personal stories.
Rabbi Dorit Edut, Sister Suzanne Sattler and EMU lecturer Jessica Kilborn, participated in the discussion about their spiritualities and religions.
Edut went to rabbinical school just a few years ago and is one of only 800 female rabbis in the United States. Her inspiration to become a rabbi came from her reading about the biblical character Deborah and her leadership.
During her quest to become a rabbi, Edut said she had her doubts about going into a field dominated by men.
The Jewish faith consists of one God and the golden rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It also involves doing charitable deeds on holidays and providing for the poor as a way of leveling the playing field for all people, Edut said.
Previously a teacher and a crisis and family counselor, Edut currently works in Detroit at DION- the Detroit Interfaith Outreach Network.
The purpose of DION is to bring people of different faiths together. Rabbi Edut is working on a venture to have “monthly interfaith services led by different interfaith members.”
Kennedy Hillman, a sophomore majoring in elementary education, initially only went to the panel to get a Learning Beyond
the Classroom credit, but left feeling inspired.
“I learned a lot from the women on the panel, especially from the rabbi,” she said. “It was really empowering to hear what she had to go through to get to where she is today and hold a position that not many women can get to.”
Raised in a Catholic family in Toledo, Ohio, Sattler became a nun after college in the 1960s. She also went to law school at the University of Detroit and worked as a legal aid attorney at a poverty law firm.
She is currently a member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a congregation that eliminates things they find unnecessary or restricting, such as habits for nuns, which Sattler said she has not worn since 1969.
When asked why she wanted to join the panel, Sattler said she tries to do what she can to help. She also “enjoyed the other speakers and was glad that there were men in the audience, not just women.”
“My roommate is Catholic, so I know a little about the religion,” Hillman said. “But it was nice to hear about it from someone with a strong religious background. It was more educational that way.”
Jessica Kilbourn, a Women’s Studies and Gender and Sexuality lecturer, got her Masters degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from EMU. She became a part of the feminist spiritual movement when she got to EMU in 1996, where her Women’s and Gender Studies advisor got her started.
“I don’t often speak publicly about spirituality,” Kilbourn said. “It’s where people will misunderstand or judge.”
According to Kilbourn, the path of feminist spirituality is to recognize and acknowledge strength, and “being accountable and not being the victim.”
In addition to her lecturing, Kilbourn works in women’s and men’s prisons, works in shelters, and is active against sexual assault and domestic violence. She also participates in marriage ceremonies and rites of passage.
Junior Nicole Ford, a public safety administration major, attended the panel because Kilbourn was her instructor.
Ford is Catholic and her sister is Jewish, so she could relate to the women of the panel.
“It was good to see the similarities between religions,” she said. “The diversity is so different, but you can find similarities.”
An issue that came up in the question-and-answer session was how the women felt about any injustices that might be in their religion.
Kilbourn answered by saying: “I am very secure in my faith, and what I know.”
