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Bea Wyler (born 1951 in Baden, Switzerland) is the second female rabbi in Germany (the first being Regina Jonas) and the first to officiate at a congregation. [1]
Bea Wyler grew up in Wettingen, Aargau, studied at ETH Zurich agriculture with a specialization in poultry farming, and worked as an agricultural journalist. The Basler Zeitung hired her as its first science editor in 1980, where she headed the science resort. [2] She then worked for a chemical company in Basel in the public relations department and was responsible for publications of the company.
After a stay in Israel, she studied in London at Leo Baeck College and in New York at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In May 1995, at the age of 44, she was ordained as rabbi by the JTS.
Bea Wyler was the first female rabbi appointed to a German congregation. The first female rabbi in Germany (and worldwide) had been Regina Jonas, whom Rabbi Max Dienemann had ordained in 1935. Rabbi Jonas preached in several Berlin synagogues from the 1930s to the 1940s and also served as rabbi there after her deportation to the Ghetto Theresienstadt in captivity.
Bea Wyler was appointed in the year of her ordination, 1995, to serve the Conservative Jewish synagogue of Oldenburg. [3] Her appointment was much criticized by Ignatz Bubis, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who generally opposed the appointment of female rabbis, saying that he would not visit a service led by her. [4] As of 2000 [update] she was Germany's only Conservative rabbi. [5] She served as a rabbi in Oldenburg, Brunswick and Delmenhorst until 2004, [6] over a decade in which Jews from the former USSR came to Germany. The congregation in Oldenburg grew from 90 to 350 members under her rabbinate. Her direct successor in Oldenburg in 2004 was Jonah Sievers; in 2010 however, her second successor became Alina Treiger who had been ordained as the first female graduate at Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam.
In May 2004, for family reasons Bea Wyler resigned from her posts in Germany and returned to Switzerland. Since, she has been active primarily in teaching and publishing, but also holds synagogal services at various places, e.g. in Basel. [7] [8]
In June 2021, Bea Wyler received an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York in recognition of her contribution to Jewish life. [9]
Conservative Judaism is a Jewish religious movement, that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations, more than from divine revelation. It therefore views Jewish law, or halakha, as both binding and subject to historical development. The conservative rabbinate employs modern historical-critical research, rather than only traditional methods and sources, and lends great weight to its constituency, when determining its stance on matters of practice. The movement considers its approach as the authentic and most appropriate continuation of halakhic discourse, maintaining both fealty to received forms and flexibility in their interpretation. It also eschews strict theological definitions, lacking a consensus in matters of faith and allowing great pluralism.
The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement. It organizes conferences and coordinates the Joint Placement Commission of the Conservative movement. Members of the RA serve as rabbis, educators, community workers and military and hospital chaplains around the world.
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies. The Jewish Theological Seminary Library is one of the most significant collections of Judaica in the world.
Joel Roth is a prominent American rabbi in the Rabbinical Assembly, which is the rabbinical body of Conservative Judaism. He is a former member and chair of the assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) which deals with questions of Jewish law and tradition, and serves as the Louis Finkelstein Professor of Talmud and Jewish Law at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City, where he formerly served as dean of the Rabbinical School. He is also Rosh Yeshiva of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, an institution founded and maintained by the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and under the academic auspices of JTS. In 2006, Rabbi Roth took over as chair of the Hebrew Language department at JTS. Rabbi Roth is a well-known teacher of Hebrew grammar. He is a vociferous proponent of the existence of the "sheva merakhef".
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this prayer leader is often referred to as a cantor, a term also used in Christianity.
Regina Jonas was a Berlin-born Reform rabbi. In 1935, she became the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi. Jonas was murdered in the Holocaust.
Amy Eilberg 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.
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
The Congregation Shearith Israel – often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. It was established in 1654 in New Amsterdam by Jews who arrived from Dutch Brazil. Until 1825, when Jewish immigrants from Germany established a congregation, it was the only Jewish congregation in New York City.
Daniel S. ("Danny") Nevins is an American rabbi and a leader in the Conservative Movement who is head of school at Golda Och Academy in West Orange, NJ On January 29, 2007, Rabbi Nevins was named the Dean of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, succeeding Rabbi William Lebeau. In 2021, it was announced that Rabbi Nevins would be stepping down as dean of the JTS Rabbinical School. He was previously the spiritual leader of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where he served for 13 years in his first pulpit. He is an authority on Jewish Law who co-authored a responsum that was passed by the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards paving the way for the Conservative Movement to allow gay marriage and to ordain lesbian and gay rabbis.
Beth Israel Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located at 385 Pottstown Pike in Upper Uwchlan Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was founded in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1904 as Kesher Israel by Eastern European immigrants, and formally chartered as "Beth Israel" in 1916. It constructed its first building in 1923, and expanded it after World War II.
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. Although Orthodox women have been ordained as rabbis, many major Orthodox Jewish communities and institutions do not accept the change. In an alternative approach, other Orthodox Jewish institutions train women as Torah scholars for various Jewish religious leadership roles. These roles typically involve training women as religious authorities in Jewish Law but without formal rabbinic ordination, instead, alternate titles are used. Yet, despite this alteration in title, these women are often perceived as equivalent to ordained rabbis. Since the 1970s, over 1,200 Jewish women have been ordained as rabbis.
The first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clergy in Judaism were ordained as rabbis and/or cantors in the second half of the 20th century.
Sara Hurwitz is an Orthodox Jewish spiritual leader aligned with the "Open Orthodox" faction of Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States. 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 Riverdale, New York.
Rachel Isaacs was the first openly lesbian rabbi ordained by the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary ("JTS"), which occurred in May 2011.
Alina Treiger is the first female rabbi to be ordained in Germany since World War II.
Jack Cohen was an Israeli-American Reconstructionist rabbi, educator, philosopher and author. Cohen held a PhD from Columbia University in the philosophy of education. In 1943 he was ordained as a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) and, soon after, started to teach courses there. Cohen was one of the distinguished students of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist Movement, and was one of the founders of Kehillat Mevakshei Derech, a synagogue in Israel. Rabbi Dr. Jack Cohen was Honorary Chairman at Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood and director of the Hillel Foundation at the Hebrew University for 23 years.
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 located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
This is a timeline of women rabbis:
| Pre-modern figures |
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| Modern figures |
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| Alternate rabbinical roles | ||||||
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| National | |
