Born May 7, 1924, Judith Heckelman Lax was the daughter of Sophie and Isaac Heckelman, Polish immigrants living in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Her father was a high school shop teacher and her mother a homemaker. Lax was raised in an Orthodox home in which both her parents valued hard work and education. An only daughter, she attended New York public schools and attained her Jewish education at after-school Lit. "study of Torah," but also the name for organizations that established religious schools, and later the specific school systems themselves, including the network of afternoon Hebrew schools in early 20th c. U.S.Talmud Torahs; her two brothers attended yeshiva day school. This gendered distinction between their educational opportunities may have contributed to Judy’s later conviction that “women should experience Judaism as fully as men do” (“A Tribute to Dr. Judith H. Lax,” 1995).

Lax had a particular aptitude for languages, with fluency in French, German, and Spanish, for which she had a lifelong passion and which became her primary academic and professional focus. Earning Spanish Honors at her 1941 graduation from Erasmus Hall High School, she went on to major in the subject at Brooklyn College. Fiercely independent, Judith charted her own course, leaving New York to complete an MA in Spanish at the University of Wisconsin. Her academic ambitions then took her Syracuse, New York, to pursue doctoral studies. 

At Syracuse University, she met Dr. Melvin Lax, a brilliant young physics professor, and they married in 1949. With children Laurie and David, they relocated to New Jersey in 1955, when Mel accepted a position at Bell Laboratories. In 1956 their son Jonathan was born. During this period, while raising three small children and moving first to New Providence and later to Summit, Lax completed her doctorate. In 1961 she was awarded a PhD by Syracuse University for her thesis, “Themes and Techniques in the Socially Oriented Cuban Novel: 1933-1952.”  Naomi, their fourth child, was born in 1966. 

Lax was a natural teacher. In New York she taught high school Spanish. Later she served for 30 years as an adjunct professor of foreign languages at Middlesex Community College. 

Kosher and Shabbat-observant, Lax was committed to maintaining a traditional Jewish home environment. In Summit, she also began a lifelong journey of involvement in the Jewish community. She became active in the Summit Jewish Community Center (SJCC), attending services weekly and forming a close friendship with the rabbi, William Horn, and his wife Dena, who saw in her a kindred spirit. 

Energetic and committed, Lax utilized her organizational skills to serve the congregation. Where she saw a need, she stepped up. As her daughter Naomi reached preschool age, Lax founded a nursery school at SJCC. She saw a robust Jewish preschool as a value in itself but also strategically as a means to strengthen the synagogue into the future.

Likewise, Lax was active in leadership of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union (now Golda Ochs Academy), serving as President of its Board of Governors from 1981 to 1983. She worked to enhance cooperation between the day schools of the Conservative movement through creation of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association. Lax sat on the Leadership Council of the National SSDS network. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, as second-wave feminism was sweeping the nation demanding equality for women at home and in the workplace, the Conservative movement was forced to reassess the status of women within traditional Judaism. These societal transformations posed an even greater challenge for the Conservative movement, which espoused both “tradition and change,” than for Orthodox or Reform, each of which fell more neatly into one camp or the other. The issue of equal participation for women in Jewish ritual and leadership magnified the challenge of finding a balance between traditional Jewish practice and change responsive to contemporary values. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, amid much deliberation and angst—position papers, The legal corpus of Jewish laws and observances as prescribed in the Torah and interpreted by rabbinic authorities, beginning with those of the Mishnah and Talmud.halakhic decisions, discussion tours, congregational polls, organizational votes, resolutions, and grassroot actions—the Conservative movement transitioned toward egalitarianism, culminating in the 1983 decision to allow for the ordination of women as rabbis. 

Against this backdrop, Dr. Lax became the first female president of a Conservative congregation. Already having served SJCC as chair of the education committee and vice president, Judith Lax rose to the top in 1971, as the new slate of synagogue officers was proposed. Some wondered if the synagogue—or any synagogue—was ready for a woman president. Others argued that Lax was the logical choice—a committed, knowlegable, observant Conservative Jew who was devoted to the synagogue and had “earned her stripes.” She served as president from 1971 to 1974.

Around the same time, following a nationwide trend, a number of women began lobbying the SJCC leadership to receive Lit. "ascent." A "calling up" to the Torah during its reading in the synagogue.aliyot to the Torah. The Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards had issued a responsum permitting Torah honors for women as early as 1955. However, as of 1972 only seven percent of Conservative congregations allowed women aliyot. By 1976 that number rose to 50 percent. 

Lax, together with Dena Horn, formed a response to this challenge rooted in education. They created Jewish Family Living, a program for women to develop their knowledge, skillsets, and confidence as Jews both in the home and on the Lit. "elevated place." Platform in the synagogue on which the Torah reading takes place.bimah. They co-taught the sessions for decades, eventually graduating 20 adult b’not mitzvah classes. 

Concurrently, the synagogue studied issues related to calling women for aliyot and counting them in a The quorum, traditionally of ten adult males over the age of thirteen, required for public synagogue service and several other religious ceremonies.minyan. The congregation held Friday night panel discussions, which were well attended in light of the perceived revolutionary nature of these proposals. Lax served on these panels and was seen as a level-headed, respected voice in favor of egalitarian change. She had a disarming way of quietly and effectively moving an agenda forward. To Lax, equality for women in Jewish life was an issue not of feminism but rather of decency. Simply put, it was “the right thing to do.”     

As president of SJCC, Lax realized the importance of sharing ideas and best practices with other synagogue presidents. She became active in the New Jersey Region of the United Synagogue of America (now United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism), the umbrella organization for Conservative synagogues. She quickly rose to the top and in 1975 was elected the first woman president of the region, a position she held until 1979.

In 1979, when Lax became the recording secretary of the United Synagogue at the Biennial Convention, the Special Convention Issue of the United Synagogue Review announced the news on its front page:  “And for the first time in the history of the United Synagogue, a woman was elected to a national office” (United Synagogue Review, Winter 1980). It is noteworthy that Dr. Judith Lax was the only married lay woman in that issue designated by her own rather than her husband’s name. 

At that convention, Lax was also honored with an aliyah to the Torah. This was the first time United Synagogue honored a woman officer of the organization in this way and was a highly controversial step at the time, considering that the issue of egalitarianism—especially regarding women’s ordination—was at fever pitch. Lax was undaunted and her courage continued to pave the way for other women to follow.

In 1982 the United Synagogue Review again published a list of 25 new officers. Elected as a vice-president, Lax this time was joined by three additional women holding national office, each listed under her own name. 

As a national officer of United Synagogue, Lax worked on a variety of projects. She was particularly concerned that the movement was losing connection with its college-age students and young adults once they moved beyond high school and the United Synagogue Youth (USY). To bridge that gap in the movement’s outreach, she worked to found Koach, which linked young adults to the Conservative movement and to one another on college campuses and beyond.

Lax continued her work in the Conservative movement even after stepping back from United Synagogue leadership. She continued her involvement in the SSDS movement and became active in MERCAZ, the Conservative/Masorti movement’s representative organization to the World Zionist Organization and Congress. Lax represented MERCAZ as a delegate to the Congress. 

On May 14, 2014, in tribute to Lax’s years of devoted leadership, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism sponsored a day of study at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Concurrently Congregation Ohr Shalom-SJCC hosted a parallel day of study for her, the congregation, and her family in Summit.

Dr. Lax spent her final years near Memphis, Tennessee, close to her children Naomi and Jonathan and their families. She died on April 19, 2022.

Dr. Judith H. Lax devoted her life to nurturing deep connections to Judaism for herself, her family, and her extended community through the framework of the Conservative movement. She took initiative and was undaunted by a challenge; she had a vision of what must be done and the wherewithal to accomplish it. In the process she took on leadership positions that were firsts for women in the Conservative movement—the first woman to serve as president of a Conservative synagogue; the first female president of the New Jersey region of United Synagogue; the first woman to serve as a national officer of United Synagogue; and the first woman in that role called for an aliyah at their national convention. Through her efforts, Lax paved the way for women in Conservative Judaism and was a role model for many who followed in her footsteps.