Women in Judaism have affected the course of Judaism over millenia. Their role is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law, by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature present various female role models, religious law treats women in specific ways. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women account for 52% of the worldwide Jewish population.
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 center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies. The Jewish Theological Seminary Library is one of the most significant collections of Judaica in the world.
Deborah Esther Lipstadt is an American historian and diplomat, best known as author of the books Denying the Holocaust (1993), History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier (2005), The Eichmann Trial (2011), and Antisemitism: Here and Now (2019). She has served as the United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism since May 3, 2022. Since 1993 she has been the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US.
The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion is a Jewish seminary with three locations in the United States and one location in Jerusalem. It is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, Ohio, New York City, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem campus is the only seminary in Israel for training Reform Jewish clergy.
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely known committees on the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. Within the movement it is known as the CJLS. The current chairman of the CJLS is Rabbi Pamela Barmash.
Sally Jane Priesand is America's first female rabbi 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 College-Jewish Institute of Religion on June 3, 1972, at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati. After her ordination she served first as assistant and then as associate rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, and later led Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New Jersey from 1981 until her retirement in 2006. She is featured in numerous books including Rabbis: The Many Faces of Judaism and Fifty Jewish Women who Changed the World.
The National Council of Jewish Women(NCJW) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Founded in 1893, NCJW is self-described as the oldest Jewish women's grassroots organization in the United States, currently comprising over 180,000 members. As of 2021, there are 60 sections in 30 states. Specifically, NCJW's policies address expanding abortion access, securing federal judicial appointments, promoting voting integrity, and mobilizing Israeli feminist movements. These objectives are achieved through lobbying, research, education, and community engagement. NCJW's headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., and the organization maintains offices in other cities in the U.S. and in Israel.
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.
Antisemitism at universities has been reported and supported since the medieval period and, more recently, resisted and studied. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation, or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish faculty and staff. In some instances, universities have been accused of condoning the development of antisemitic cultures on campus.
Rachel "Ray" Frank 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 woman rabbi in the United States.
Congregation Beth Israel is a Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 411 South Eighth Street, in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Founded in 1907 to provide services for the High Holidays, it was then, and remains today, the only synagogue in the Lebanon area.
See also: Timeline of women rabbis
Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi is an American-born Reform rabbi who was named as Dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campus in Jerusalem starting in July 2009. In 1992, Kelman made history as the first woman in Israel to become a rabbi when she received her rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk.
Angela Buchdahl is an American rabbi. She was the first East Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi, and the first East Asian-American to be ordained as a hazzan (cantor). In 2011 she was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of America's "Most Influential Rabbis", and in 2012 by The Daily Beast as one of America's "Top 50 Rabbis". Buchdahl was recognized as one of the top five in The Forward's 2014 "Forward Fifty", a list of American Jews who had the most impact on the national scene in the previous year.
Pauline Bebe is the rabbi of Communauté Juive Libérale, a Progressive Jewish congregation in Paris. She was the first female rabbi in France, and the first female rabbi to lead a synagogue there. As of 2018 France has only four women rabbis, Bebe, Célia Surget, Delphine Horvilleur and Floriane Chinsky.
Tehilla Lichtenstein, born Tehilla Hirshenson, was a leader of Jewish Science, 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. She earned a B.A. degree in Classics from Hunter College and an M.A. degree in literature from Columbia University.
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. She was chosen over five male candidates. Alexander was ordained by the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1983, after studying at the Conservative movement's University of Judaism in Los Angeles; Conservative Judaism did not ordain women at the time. She wanted to be a rabbi since she was 17, and was encouraged in her ambitions by her parents. Her first major job after being ordained was as director of adult activities and community education at the Jewish Community Centers in San Diego, where she also met her husband, Dr. Kenneth Atchison. She kept her maiden name upon marriage because most of her family was killed in the Holocaust, and as an only child she did not want to have her name end.
This is a timeline of women rabbis:
Antisemitism at Columbia University was prevalent in the first half of the 20th century and resurged in the early 21st century. In 1920 Columbia University was the first American university to initiate quotas on Jews, halving the Jewish student population in two years. In the early 21st century and acutely after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, students and staff protests and commentary were criticized as antisemitic and scrutinized by the US Congress, which opened an investigation on Columbia University. In April 2024, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik condemned antisemitic acts by students and faculty in campus and said the university was in a "moral crisis". United States president Joe Biden and the mayor of New York, Eric Adams condemned the 2024 anti-Israel protests as antisemitic and condemned the calls for violence and harassment against Jews.
