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.
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.
Rachel Adler is Professor Emerita of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at Hebrew Union College, at the Los Angeles campus.
Naomi Levy is an American rabbi, author and speaker.
Alysa Stanton 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 Greenville, North Carolina, making her the first African American rabbi to lead a majority-white congregation. Stanton converted to Judaism at age 24 and first studied and worked as a psychotherapist.
The Academy for Jewish Religion California (AJRCA), is a Jewish seminary in Los Angeles. It trains rabbis, cantors and chaplains to serve congregations and organizations of any Jewish denomination.
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.
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.
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.
Danya Ruttenberg is an American rabbi, editor, and author.
Sharon Brous is an American rabbi who currently serves as the senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. She was one of the founders of IKAR in 2004, along with Melissa Balaban, who currently serves as IKAR's Chief Executive Officer, and others. Every year since its founding, IKAR has been named one of the nation’s 50 most innovative Jewish nonprofits by the Slingshot Fund Guide, a resource guide for Jewish innovation.
Chava Koster, the granddaughter of Dutch Holocaust survivors, was the first woman from the Netherlands to be ordained as a rabbi. She was ordained in 1997 at the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York. Koster is now the rabbi of the Village Temple, also known as Congregation B'nai Israel, in New York City, before joining the Village Temple, she was Associate Rabbi at Temple B'nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey. In 2010 she was featured in the documentary Kol Ishah: The Rabbi is a Woman, directed by Hannah Heer. In 2010 she was chosen to be the first female rabbi in Sweden; however she withdrew her name for "personal reasons."
Elisa Klapheck is the first female rabbi to serve in the Netherlands, although she was born in Germany. She was also one of the organizers of Bet Debora Berlin, a conference of European women rabbis, cantors, scholars, and rabbinically-educated Jews in Berlin in 1999. She was ordained in 2004 by the Aleph Rabbinic Program, and in 2005 she became the rabbi of "Beit Ha'Chidush" in Amsterdam. In 2009 she returned to Germany and has since been the rabbi of the "Egalitarian Minyan" in the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main. She is a member of the General Conference of Rabbis of Germany (ARK) and an associate member of the Rabbinic Board of "Liberal Judaism" in London.
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is The Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature and History at the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.
Rona Shapiro became the first female rabbi to head a Conservative synagogue in Cleveland in 2007, when she became rabbi of Congregation Bethaynu in Pepper Pike.
This is a timeline of women rabbis:
Jean Fox O'Barr is an American feminist teacher, scholar, and administrator whose pioneering work helped establish women’s studies as a program of academic study and support for women in higher education.
Temple Emanuel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 300 North Clark Drive, in Beverly Hills, California, in the United States.
Lisa L. Goldstein is an American Reform rabbi and, from 2011 to 2019, was the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, an organisation based in New York City. She was previously Executive Director of Hillel of San Diego.
