Tehilla Lichtenstein (1893 – 1973) was a cofounder and leader of

Jewish Science Jewish Science is a Judaic spiritual movement comparable with the New Thought Movement. Many of its members also attend services at conventional synagogues. It is an interpretation of Jewish philosophy that was originally conceived by Rabbi ...

, as well as an author. She was born in Jerusalem and immigrated to America when she was eleven years old. Her parents were Hava (Cohen) and Rabbi

Chaim Hirschensohn Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn ( he, חיים הירשנזון, 1857 – 1935) was a prolific author, rabbi, thinker, and early proponent of Religious Zionism. Biography Chaim Hirschensohn was born on August 31, 1857 in Safed, in the Galilee to R ...

. She earned a B.A. degree in Classics from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

and an M.A. degree in literature from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Lichtenstein originally ran the religious school of the Society of Jewish Science in New York, where she also taught Hebrew and Bible. She became the spiritual leader of the Society of Jewish Science when her husband Morris, who had been its leader, died in 1938. Morris's will had declared that the position should go to one of their sons, or to Tehilla if neither of their sons was willing, which as it turned out they were not. Thus Lichtenstein became the first Jewish American woman with a pulpit (although she never sought or received rabbinic ordination) and the first to serve as the spiritual leader of an ongoing Jewish congregation. On December 4, 1938, Lichtenstein gave her first sermon as the new leader of the Society of Jewish Science. It was entitled “The Power of Thought.” According to 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 d ...

'', which gave a brief notice to the event, over five hundred people attended this sermon. She continued to preach from the pulpit until 1972. She gave over five hundred sermons in all. She hosted a weekly radio program in the 1950s which was a combination of practical advice and Jewish Science teachings. Her papers, known as the Tehilla Lichtenstein Papers, are now held at the

American Jewish Archives The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, founded in 1947, is committed to preserving a documentary heritage of the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of American Jewry. It has be ...

in Cincinnati, Ohio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lichtenstein, Tehilla 1893 births 1973 deaths American radio personalities Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Hunter College alumni Jewish movements Jewish scholars American Jewish theologians Women Jewish theologians 20th-century American Jews Women rabbis and Torah scholars

Further reading

References