the ordination of women. Lauterbach faced opposition from the general membership of the Conference as well as from his own committee. The committee members made no reference to any prior discussion of the responsum which seems to have been the work of Lauterbach alone.
Eventually a resolution of a special committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis stated"we declare that women cannot justly be denied the privilege of ordination." This lukewarm endorsement kept the matter alive theoretically but did not lead to women entering the rabbinate for several decades until 1972. No vote was taken by the Conference and the Hebrew Union College decided against the ordination of women at that time.
Subsequent responsa of Lauterbach were often also brief; they dealt with practical questions like"The Position of the Synagogue Entrance and Art"(1927),"The Blowing of the Shofar"
(1923), and"The Direction of Graves in the Cemetery"(1923), and were provided in a limited fashion with appropriate citations. He used other questions to write lengthy essays as for example, "Autopsy"(1925),"Birth Control "(1927),"Worshipping with Covered Heads"(1928),"The Naming of Children"(1932). In these essays as well as in some of the other medium length responsa, "Blowing of the Shofar"(1923)."Work on a New Synagogue on the Sabbath by Non-Jews"(1927), quotations from the Talmud and codes as well as responsa were generously used. In all of these responsa Lauterbach frequently provided an ingenious interpretation of traditional texts. Sometimes his responsa were misunderstood by readers, as for example the responsum which deals with"Worshipping with Covered Heads"(1928) was not intended as an endorsement for either covering or uncovering one’s head but was written to demonstrate that this is a matter of custom not principle, and so should not be elevated to a position of extraordinary importance.