By Kate Pastor

When Elizabeth Stevens graduated cantoral school in 2000 at the age of 26, she flew to Chicago to interview for a position at a synagogue that had recently turned egalitarian.

“Practically with my suitcase in my hand they said, ‘well we’re not really sure we want to hire someone young and we’re not really sure we can hire a woman,’” she recalled in an interview at her office at the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale.

Though her prospects seemed dim, she stayed for the interview, which was performed Oprah Winfrey Showstyle, she joked.

It included a panel of about 30 people peppering her with questions.

“Somebody said, ‘what will you do to make us comfortable with the fact that you’re a woman?’” she said.

“So I did not burst out laughing, but my answer was, ‘I’m not gonna do anything specific, I’m just gonna be a cantor.’ And I could see light bulbs going on over the heads all across the room. ‘Oh, she’s not a girl, she’s not a lady cantor, she’s a cantor, this is a cantor, she’ll be a cantor.”

While that job didn’t pan out, Ms. Stevens was hired by The Society for the Advancement of Judaism in Manhattan, where she served from 2000 to 2009, leading the musical portions of services, and performing other religious duties.

In 2009, she happened upon an advertisement for an open position at CSAIR. Attracted by the involvement and diversity of the 450-family congregation, she soon moved to Riverdale to become its first-ever female clergy member.

Though somewhat more conservative than the synagogue she had come from, CSAIR members did not seem overly concerned with her gender, she said.