Sarah Schechter is the first female rabbi in the U.S. Air Force. [1] She joined the Air Force as a chaplain candidate, and became a chaplain when she was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 2003. [2] Her father was an Air Force chaplain in 1960. [3] [4]
She grew up in Manhattan, and decided to join the military immediately after the September 11 attacks, calling a recruiter on September 12. [5] Her daughter Yael Emunah was born during her military service. [6]
In 2013, she became the Jewish chaplain of the 11th Wing at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and was featured on the chaplain section of the Air Force website. [7] [8]
She wrote the piece "Personal Reflection: A Rabbi in the Military", which appears in the book The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate, published in 2016. [9] [10]
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.
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.
Jacqueline Hazel "Jackie" Tabick is a British Reform rabbi. She became Britain's first female rabbi in 1975. She is convenor of the Movement for Reform Judaism's Beit Din, the first woman in the role, and until its closure in 2022 was also Rabbi of West Central Liberal Synagogue in Bloomsbury, central London.
This article is about women in warfare and the military (2000–present) throughout the world outside the United States. For women in warfare and the military in the United States since 2000, please see: Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States, 2000–2010 and Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States from 2011–present.
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.
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is the first woman to have been ordained a rabbi in Reconstructionist Judaism. She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, on May 19, 1974. She is also the author of many children's books on religious topics.
Arnold E. Resnicoff is an American Conservative rabbi who served as a military officer and military chaplain. He served in Vietnam and Europe before attending rabbinical school. He then served as a U.S. Navy Chaplain for almost 25 years. He promoted the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and delivered the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. In 1984 the President of the United States spoke on his eyewitness account of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing. After retiring from the military he was National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee and served as Special Assistant to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, serving at the equivalent military rank of Brigadier General.
Denise Leese Eger is an American Reform rabbi. In March 2015, she became president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in North America; she was the first openly gay person to hold that position.
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 chaplain for the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Navy; she was the first woman rabbi to serve in this capacity for the Marines, and the second in the Navy. After moving to Canada, she became the first woman rabbi to serve as a chaplain with the Canadian Forces.
Women's Rabbinic Network is an American national organization for female Reform rabbis. It was founded in 1980; Rabbi Deborah Prinz was its first overall coordinator, and Rabbi Myra Soifer was the first editor of its newsletter.
Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus is an American rabbi. She is a founder and former president of the Women's Rabbinic Network, which was founded in 1976 by fifteen female rabbinical students.
This is a timeline of women rabbis:
This article lists events involving women in warfare and the military in the United States from 2000 until 2010. For 2011 onward, please see Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States from 2011–present.
Susan Silverman is an American Reform rabbi and the sister of comedians Laura Silverman and Sarah Silverman. In 1997, she and her husband, Yosef Abramowitz, co-authored the book Jewish Family and Life: Traditions, Holidays, and Values for Today’s Parents and Children. She worked as a congregational rabbi in Maryland, and as a Jewish educator in Boston, and moved to Israel in 2006.
This article lists events involving Women in warfare and the military in the United States since 2011. For the previous decade, see Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States, 2000–2010.
This is a timeline of women in religion. See also: Timeline of women in religion in the United States.
Sandra Lawson is a rabbi and the first Director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism. She previously served as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University. Lawson became the first openly gay, female, and black rabbi in the world in 2018. She is a veteran, vegan, sociologist, personal trainer, food activist, weightlifter, author and musician.