Alexandra Wright is a British Liberal rabbi who was appointed as the first female senior rabbi in England in 2004, as Rabbi of the

Liberal Jewish Synagogue The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, or LJS ( he, קהל קדוש לב חדש, ''Qahal Kadosh Lev Chadash'', "Holy Congregation New Heart"), is a house of prayer in St John's Wood, London, founded in 1911. It is the oldest and largest member of Britai ...

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...

, London. She is President of Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom. Wright became the seventh woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the United Kingdom in 1986; she was ordained at

Leo Baeck College Leo Baeck College is a privately funded rabbinical seminary and centre for the training of teachers in Jewish education. Based now at the Sternberg Centre, East End Road, Finchley, in the London Borough of Barnet, it was founded by Werner van ...

, and has taught

classical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of t ...

there. She served as Associate Rabbi at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue from 1986 until 1989. She then served as Rabbi at Radlett and Bushey Reform Synagogue in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

from 1989 until 2003. In 2010 she wrote an open letter to

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

, then the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, asking him to ordain women as bishops. She has contributed to two anthologies of women rabbis' essays and liturgies – ''Hear our Voice'' and ''Taking up the Timbrel.'' She is also the only woman whose sermon has been included in Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein's ''Jewish Preaching in Times of War''.

Personal life

She has two children, Gabrielle and Benedict.

References

External links

Profile at Liberal Judaism website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Alexandra Living people 20th-century English rabbis 21st-century English rabbis Alumni of Leo Baeck College British Liberal rabbis Rabbis from London Women rabbis Year of birth missing (living people)