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When Denise Eger assumes the leadership of this region's local rabbinic association, she'll be making history - twice over.
On May 11, Eger will become not only the first woman to lead the Board of Rabbis of Southern California - one of the nation's largest rabbinic boards - but also the board's first openly gay or lesbian president.
Eger, 49, serves as the rabbi of West Hollywood's gay-and-lesbian-oriented Reform synagogue, Congregation KoI Ami, and has been active on the local board of rabbis for more than a decade. She also has been outspoken on issues of gay and lesbian rights in the Jewish community and beyond - most recently fighting against Proposition 8, California's anti-gay marriage ballot initiative.
Eger's ascension to the presidency is a milestone'for the 72-yearold association, whose members include Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox rabbis.
"It's a remarkable development," said longtime Jewish communal observer Gerald Bubis, founding director of the School of Jewish Communal Service at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. "It shows everybody's maturity in the process that a person who happens to be a woman and happens to be a lesbian would become president."
The board's presidency rotates every two years between the movements. Having...