Timeline of women rabbis in America
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This is a timeline of women rabbis in the United States. * 1890s:
Ray Frank Rachel ("Ray") Frank (April 10, 1861 in San Francisco – October 10, 1948) was a Jewish religious leader in the United States. Frank was an early figure in the acceptance of women rabbis and was reported as a prospective candidate for the first ...
, a young Jewish woman living on the American frontier, began delivering sermons in her small Jewish community in the American West. Frank was regarded at the time as the "first woman rabbi". * 1972:
Sally Priesand Sally Jane Priesand (born June 27, 1946) is America's first female rabbi Semikha, ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after Regina Jonas. Priesand was ordained by the Hebrew Union Co ...
became America's first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after
Regina Jonas Regina Jonas (; German: ''Regine Jonas'';As documented by ''Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Geburtsregister; Laufendenummer 892'' which reads: "''In front of the signed registrar appeared today... Wolff Jonas... a ...
.Blau, Eleanor
"1st Woman Rabbi in U.S. Ordained; She May Be Only the Second in History of Judaism"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', June 4, 1972. Retrieved September 17, 2009. "Sally HJ. Priesand was ordained at the Isaac M. Wise Temple here today, becoming the first woman rabbi in this country and it is believed, the second in the history of Judaism."
* 1974: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first female rabbi in
Reconstructionist Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than a religion, based on concepts developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream wi ...
. * 1975: The Women's Rabbinic Network, an American national organization for female Reform rabbis, was founded in 1975 by female rabbinic students. * 1976: Michal Mendelsohn became the first presiding female rabbi in a North American congregation when she was hired by Temple Beth El Shalom in San Jose, California. *1976: Rabbi Ilene Schneider, Ed.D., graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and was one of the first six female rabbis ordained in the United States. * 1977: Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and her husband Dennis Sasso became the first couple to serve jointly as rabbis when they were hired by Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis. * 1979:
Linda Joy Holtzman Linda Joy Holtzman is an American rabbi and author. In 1979 she became one of the first women in the United States to serve as the presiding rabbi of a synagogue, when she was hired by Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County, which was then lo ...
became the first woman to serve as a rabbi for a Conservative congregation when she was hired by
Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County Beth Israel Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located at 385 Pottstown Pike ( Route 100) in Upper Uwchlan Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was founded in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1904 as Kesher Israel by Eastern European immi ...
, which was then located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. She had graduated in 1979 from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, yet was hired by Beth Israel despite their being a Conservative congregation. * 1981:
Helene Ferris Helene Ferris is the first second-career female rabbi in Judaism. Biography Helene Ferris was ordained by the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1981, and worked as an associate rabbi in the Stephen Wise Fr ...
became the first second-career female rabbi. * 1981:
Lynn Gottlieb Lynn Gottlieb (born April 12, 1949, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American rabbi in the Jewish Renewal movement. In 1974, she founded the now-defunct feminist theater troupe Bat Kol. In 1981, she became the first woman ordained as a rabbi in ...
became the first female rabbi in Jewish Renewal. * 1981:
Bonnie Koppell Bonnie Koppell is an American ethnicity, American rabbi. She was one of the first female rabbis in the United States, and was the first woman rabbi to serve in the U.S. military. Since 2006, Rabbi Koppell has served as a rabbi to the Temple Chai c ...
became the first female rabbi to serve in the U.S. military. She joined the army reserves in 1978 while a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was ordained in 1981. * 1984: From 1984 to 1990 Barbara Borts, born in America, was a rabbi at Radlett Reform Synagogue, making her the first woman rabbi to have a pulpit of her own in a UK Reform Judaism synagogue. * 1985:
Amy Eilberg Amy Eilberg (born October 12, 1954) is the first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism. She was ordained in 1985 by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, one of the academic centers and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism. You ...
became the first female rabbi in Conservative Judaism. * 1986:
Amy Perlin Amy Perlin is the first female rabbi in the United States to start her own congregation, Temple B'nai Shalom in Fairfax Station, Virginia, of which she was the founding rabbi in 1986. In 1978, she graduated from Princeton University with a degree in ...
became the first female rabbi in America to start her own congregation, Temple B'nai Shalom in Fairfax Station, which she was the founding rabbi of in 1986. * 1986: Leslie Alexander became the first female rabbi of a major Conservative Jewish synagogue in the United States in 1986 at Adat Ari El synagogue in North Hollywood. * 1986:
Julie Schwartz Julius "Julie" Schwartz (; June 19, 1915 – February 8, 2004) was a comic book editor, and a science fiction agent and prominent fan. He was born in The Bronx, New York. He is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various ...
became the first woman to serve as an active-duty Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Navy. * 1987:
Joy Levitt Joy Levitt is an American rabbi and from 1987 to 1989 was the first female president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. Levitt is also the founder of the Jewish Journey Project, an initiative that attempts to replace individual synago ...
became the first female president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. * 1988: Stacy Offner became the first openly lesbian rabbi hired by a mainstream Jewish congregation (Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis). * 1992:
Karen Soria Karen Soria is an American-born rabbi. She became the first female rabbi to serve in Australia when she joined the rabbinical team at Temple Beth Israel, a progressive Reform Jewish synagogue in Melbourne, in the 1980s. She later served as a chapl ...
became the first female rabbi to serve in the U.S. Marines, which she did from 1992 until 1996. * 1993: Rebecca Dubowe became the first Deaf woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the United States. * 1993: Ariel Stone became the first American rabbi to lead a congregation in the former Soviet Union, and the first progressive rabbi to serve the Jewish community in Ukraine * 1993:
Chana Timoner Chana Timoner (''née'' Carol Ann Surasky; August 24, 1951 – July 13, 1998) was the first female rabbi to hold an active duty assignment as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, which she began in 1993. Early life and education She was born in New Hav ...
became the first female rabbi to hold an active duty assignment as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. * 1994:
Laura Geller Laura Geller (born 1950) is an American rabbi. She serves as the rabbi emerita of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, California. Early life and education Geller was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts until she was 15, when her family moved to New ...
became the first woman to lead a major metropolitan congregation, specifically Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills. * 1994
Rabbi Shohama Wiener
became the first woman to head a Jewish seminary, th
Academy for Jewish Religion
* 1995: Dianne Cohler-Esses became the first Syrian woman to become a rabbi, and the first Syrian non-Orthodox rabbi, when she was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1995. * 1996:
Cynthia Culpeper Cynthia Ann "Cyndie" Culpeper (June 16, 1962 – August 29, 2005) was the first pulpit rabbi to announce being diagnosed with AIDS, which she did in 1996 when she was rabbi of Agudath Israel in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the first full-time fem ...
became the first pulpit rabbi to announce being diagnosed with
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
, which she did when she was rabbi of Agudath Israel in
Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
. * 1999:
Tamara Kolton Tamara Ruth Kolton (' Feldstein; ; born March 13, 1970) is an American non-denominational rabbi and clinical psychologist. She was the first person ordained as a member of the Humanistic Jewish movement. Over time, her religious position evolve ...
became the very first rabbi of either sex in Humanistic Judaism. * 2000:
Helga Newmark Helga Newmark, née Helga Hoflich, (1932–2012) was the first female Holocaust survivors, Holocaust survivor ordained as a rabbi. Biography She was born in Germany, and was sent to the concentration camps of Westerbork transit camp, Westerbork, ...
, born in Germany, became the first female Holocaust survivor ordained as a rabbi. She was ordained in America. * 2001:
Angela Warnick Buchdahl Angela Warnick Buchdahl ( ko, 앤절라 워닉 북달; born July 8, 1972) is an American rabbi. She was the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi, and the first Asian-American to be ordained as a ''hazzan'' (cantor). In 2011 she was name ...
, born in Korea, became the first Asian-American rabbi. She was ordained in America."Our Clergy: Angela Warnick Buchdahl, Senior Cantor"
Central Synagogue Web site
* 2002:
Jacqueline Mates-Muchin Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, a San Francisco native, is the first Chinese-American rabbi in the world. Her mother was second-generation Chinese-American and her father was the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants. She was ordained by Hebrew Union College- ...
was ordained by
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
in New York, and thus became the first Chinese-American rabbi. * 2002:
Pamela Frydman Pamela Frydman is an American rabbi. She is the founding rabbi of Or Shalom Jewish Community, a San Francisco Jewish Renewal congregation. Career In 2002, Rabbi Frydman became the first female president of OHALAH (Association of Rabbis for Jewish ...
became the first female president of OHALAH (Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.) * 2003: Janet Marder was named the first female president of the Reform Movement's
Central Conference of American Rabbis The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. The CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world. I ...
(CCAR) on March 26, 2003, making her the first woman to lead a major rabbinical organization and the first woman to lead any major Jewish co-ed religious organization in the United States. * 2003:
Sarah Schechter Sarah Schechter is the first female rabbi in the U.S. Air Force. She joined the Air Force as a chaplain candidate, and became a chaplain when she was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 2003. Her father was an Air Force chaplain in 1960. She grew ...
became the first female rabbi to serve as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force. * 2006: Chaya Gusfield and Lori Klein became the first openly lesbian rabbis ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement. * 2008:
Julie Schonfeld Julie Schonfeld is the first female rabbi to serve in the chief executive position of an American rabbinical association, having been named the executive vice president of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly (RA) in 2008 and later Chi ...
was named the new executive vice president of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, becoming the first female rabbi to serve in the chief executive position of an American rabbinical association. * 2009: In June 2009,
Avi Weiss Avraham Haim Yosef (Avi) haCohen Weiss ( he, אברהם חיים יוסף הכהן ווייס; born June 24, 1944) is an American Open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who led the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in T ...
ordained
Sara Hurwitz Sara Hurwitz is an Open Orthodox Jewish spiritual leader. She is considered by some to be the first female Orthodox rabbi. She serves as "Rabba" at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, and the president and co-founder of Yeshivat Maharat, both in ...
with the title "
maharat Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx, New York, which was the first Open Orthodox yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word ''Maharat'' () is a Hebrew acronym for phrase ''manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit'' ...
" (an acronym of ''manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit'') rather than "Rabbi". In February 2010, Weiss announced that he was changing Maharat to a more familiar-sounding title "Rabba". Hurwitz continues to use the title Rabba and is considered by some to be the first female Orthodox rabbi. * 2009:
Alysa Stanton Alysa Stanton (born August 2, 1963) is an American Reform rabbi, and the first African American female rabbi. Ordained on June 6, 2009, in August 2009 she began work as a rabbi at Congregation Bayt Shalom, a small majority-white synagogue in Gre ...
, born in Cleveland and ordained by a Reform Jewish seminary in Cincinnati, became the first African-American female rabbi. Later in 2009 she began work as a rabbi at Congregation Bayt Shalom, a small majority-white synagogue in
Greenville, North Carolina Greenville is the county seat of and the most populous city in Pitt County, North Carolina, Pitt County, North Carolina, United States; the principal city of the Greenville, North Carolina metropolitan area, Greenville metropolitan area; and th ...
, making her the first African-American rabbi to lead a majority-white congregation. * 2011:
Rachel Isaacs Rachel Isaacs was the first openly lesbian rabbi ordained by the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary ("JTS"), which occurred in May 2011. Biography Isaacs earned her B.A. from Wellesley College in 2005, where she was the Hille ...
became the first openly lesbian rabbi ordained by the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary ("JTS"), which occurred in May 2011. * 2012: Ilana Mills was ordained, thus making her, Jordana Chernow-Reader, and Mari Chernow the first three female siblings in America to become rabbis. * 2012: Emily Aviva Kapor, who had been ordained privately by a "
Conservadox Conservadox is the term occasionally applied to describe either individuals or congregations located on the religious continuum somewhere between the Conservative and Modern Orthodox wings of American Jewry. The epithet "Traditional" is also spari ...
" rabbi in 2005, began living as a woman in 2012, thus becoming the first openly transgender female rabbi. * 2014: Rabbi
Deborah Waxman Deborah Waxman is an American rabbi and the president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism (the merged organization of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities). Waxman was inaugurated as the president of b ...
was inaugurated as the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities on October 26, 2014. As the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, she is the first lesbian to lead a Jewish congregational union, and the first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is both a congregational union and a seminary. * 2015: Mira Rivera became the first Filipino-American woman to be ordained as a rabbi. * 2015:
Lila Kagedan Lila Kagedan ( years old) is a Canadian-born Jewish rabbi who in 2016 became the first woman with the title rabbi to be hired by an Orthodox synagogue. This occurred when Mount Freedom Jewish Center in New Jersey, which is open Modern Orthodox, h ...
, born in Canada, became the first graduate of
Yeshivat Maharat Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx, New York, which was the first Open Orthodox yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word ''Maharat'' () is a Hebrew acronym for phrase ''manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit'' ...
to use the title "Rabbi". * 2015:
Abby Stein Abby Chava Stein (born October 1, 1991) is an American transgender author, activist, blogger, model, speaker, and rabbi. She is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's fo ...
came out as transgender and thus became the first woman (and the first openly transgender woman) to have been ordained by an ultra-Orthodox institution, having received her rabbinical degree in 2011 from Yeshiva Viznitz in South Fallsburg, N.Y. While this was before she was openly transgender, and she was not working as a rabbi when she came out, by 2020 she had re-embraced her title as rabbi, and was working in many capacities as a rabbi. * 2016: After four years of deliberation,
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
decided to give women a choice of wording on their ordination certificates beginning in 2016, including the option to have the same wording as men.Why a small word change is a big deal for Reform women rabbis
JTA, May 31, 2016
Previously, male candidates' ordination certificates identified them by the Reform movement's traditional "morenu harav," or "our teacher the rabbi," while female candidates' certificates only used the term "rav u’morah," or "rabbi and teacher."


See also

* Rabbi#Women rabbis * Timeline of women rabbis * Women in Judaism


References

{{Women rabbis United States History of women in the United States
Women rabbis Women rabbis are individual Jewish women who have studied Jewish Law and received rabbinical ordination. Women rabbis are prominent in Progressive Jewish denominations, however, the subject of women rabbis in Orthodox Judaism is more complex. Al ...
rabbis usa Judaism in the United States History of religion in the United States History of Judaism