Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Can a rabbi be a woman?
On March 22, 2009, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, an Orthodox Synagogue,[64] held a formal ceremony officially giving Sara Hurwitz the title Maharat – Manhigah Halakhtit Ruchanit Toranit.[65] However, some Orthodox leaders, such as the Rabbinical Council of America and the Agudath Israel of America, opposed this move and said it was not in keeping with Orthodoxy; in any case, Hurwitz was not given the title "rabbi". However, she is considered by some the first Orthodox woman rabbi. In February 2010, Avi Weiss announced that he was changing her title of Maharat to a more familiar-sounding title "Rabba".[66] The goal of this shift was to clarify Hurwitz's position as a full member of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale rabbinic staff. The change was criticised by both Agudath Yisrael and the Rabbinical Council of America, who called the move "beyond the pale of Orthodox Judaism".[67] Indeed, women's ordination has come to be a focal point of division between YCT and the rest of the spectrum of Orthodoxy,[68] as most of Orthodoxy does not view YCT as normative Orthodoxy.[69] Weiss announced amidst criticism that the term "Rabba" would not be used anymore for his future students. However, in June 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat and in keeping with newer policies, was given the freedom to choose her own title, and she chose to be addressed as "Rabbi".[70] In 2018, Dina Brawer, born in Italy but living in Britain, was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat; she chose the title Rabba.[71][72]
In 1999, Elisa Klapheck published a biography about Regina Jonas and a detailed edition of her thesis, ""Can Women Serve as Rabbis?"". The biography, translated into English in 2004 under the title "Fräulein Rabbiner Jonas - The Story of the First Woman Rabbi", gives voice to witnesses who knew or met Regina Jonas personally as rabbi in Berlin or Theresienstadt. Klapheck also described Jonas' love relationship with Rabbi Josef Norden.
Rabbi Sperber agreed with Rabbi Shapiro's argument that the baraita in Megillah 23a indicated that the Sages instituted "we do not call a woman" as a later prohibition, and that calling a woman was originally permitted. He focused on the concept of Kevod HaBriyot ("human dignity"), a Talmudic concept by which rabbinical prohibitions are sometimes waived in order to preserve honor or dignity. Noting that the concept had received modern applications by Orthodox decisors including an opinion by Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg permitting wearing a hearing aid on Shabbat (based on a Talmudic opinion overriding the rabbinic prohibition against carrying on Shabbat to permit a person needing to defecate to carry wiping material), Rabbi Shapiro argued that the "Kevod HaBriyot" concept could be applied to override the rabbinic prohibition against calling women to the Torah on grounds of human dignity or respect.
Barbara Borts took up posts as rabbi at Hampstead Reform Synagogue and at Mill Hill Reform Synagogue. From 1984 to 1990 she was rabbi at Radlett Reform Synagogue, the first woman rabbi to have a pulpit of her own in a UK Reform Judaism synagogue. After spending some time in North America, where she became the first female rabbi in Montreal and was one of the first religious leaders to conduct same-sex marriages in Ontario, she worked as part-time rabbi of Newcastle Reform Synagogue from 2008 to 2012 and became part-time rabbi of a small Jewish community in Basel, Switzerland.
Nelly Shulman is the first female rabbi from Russia and was the first female rabbi in Belarus, having served as the chief reform rabbi of Minsk, Belarus. This makes her the first Russian-born woman to be a rabbi in the former Soviet Union. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and received her rabbinical ordination at the Leo Baeck College in London in 1999. She was a rabbi in Belarus for five years, the first female rabbi to serve there. She later returned to Russia and worked as a rabbi in Moscow. She also became a founding member and rabbi for the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Russia. In 2006 she officiated at what is believed to be Russia's first Jewish same-sex commitment ceremony, which led to Russia's largest Jewish group, Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, asking the Jewish Russian community to boycott Reform Jews.
Rav in the name of Rabbi Reuben ben Estrobile cited Laban's and Bethuel's response to Abraham's servant that "The matter was decreed by the Lord" in as a proof text for the proposition that God destines a woman and a man for each other in marriage. Rabbi Joshua the son of Rabbi Nehemiah in the name of Rabbi Haninah ben Isaac said that the decree with regard to Rebekah that Laban and Bethuel acknowledged came from Mount Moriah.
Asenath Barzani was named Tanna’it. This denomination is a rabbinical title, but it is not identical to the title of rabbi. Since her father was labeled as such and not as a rabbi, it is clear that in the Kurdistan of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the rabbi usually performed as Tannai (Tanna’it’s female form), so it was determined. It is therefore likely that Asenath Barzani was the first woman rabbi, while Regina Jonas (1902-1942) was the first woman who was called the Rabbi.
Lia Bass is a Brazilian-born American rabbi and the second Latin American female rabbi in the world. She is also Southern Virginia's first female Refirn
rabbi and the first woman from Brazil to be ordained as a rabbi. She was born in Rio de Janeiro, and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York in 1994. In 2001 she became the rabbi of Congregation Etz Hayim in Fairfax, Virginia.
With the goal of becoming a rabbi, Jonas wrote a thesis that would have been an ordination requirement. Her topic was "Can a Woman Be a Rabbi According to Halachic Sources?" Her conclusion, based on Biblical, Talmudic, and rabbinical sources, was that she should be ordained. However, the Talmud professor responsible for ordinations refused her because she was a woman. Jonas applied to Rabbi Leo Baeck, spiritual leader of German Jewry, who had taught her at the seminary. He also refused because the ordination of a female rabbi would have caused massive intra-Jewish communal problems with the Orthodox rabbinate in Germany.
Leah's early life was spent in Bolechów, in Polish Galicia (now Bolekhiv, Ukraine), where her father was the rabbi. When he became rabbi of Brody in 1735, his son Mordecai succeeded him as rabbi of Bolechów. Leah remained in Bolechów, continuing to live as a young married woman in the home of her brother. Her husband at this time was Aryeh Leib, son of the rabbi of Dobromyl, Ukraine; later she was married to Shabbetai ben Benjamin ha-Cohen Rappoport, rabbi of Krasny, Russia. It is unknown whether she had any children.
The rabbi's wife plays an important community role, especially in small communities. In many ways, she is called on to be as knowledgeable as the rabbi in the realm of woman's observances: In this manner, for something that does not require a "psak" (ruling), she can be approached when a woman does not feel comfortable approaching the rabbi, or where the rabbi maybe should not be approached. For instance, the rebbetzin may be consulted in personal questions regarding female sexuality.
Joan Friedman became the first woman to serve as a rabbi in Canada in 1980, when she was appointed as an Assistant Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple. Her appointment was followed shortly after by that of Elyse Goldstein as Assistant Rabbi from 1983-1986; Goldstein has been noted as the first female rabbi in Canada, but that is incorrect.
The current building at 1 Bowman Street was completed in 1971, and houses a number of notable works of art by Marc Chagall, Ben Shahn and Frank Eliscu. Eric Slaton served as rabbi from 1985 to 1988, and Carla Freedman from 1990 to 1997;Freedman was the first Canadian woman to become a rabbi, and the first woman ordained at Hebrew Union College to become a grandmother. Freedman was followed as rabbi by David Steinberg (1999–2005), Heidi Waldmann (2005-2008), Andrew Goodman (2008–2010), Emma Gottlieb (2010–2102), and Kari Tuling, who joined in July, 2012.
Joan Friedman became the first woman to serve as a rabbi in Canada in 1980, when she was appointed as an Assistant Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Her appointment was followed shortly after by that of Goldstein as Assistant Rabbi from 1983-1986; Goldstein has been noted as the first female rabbi in Canada, but that is incorrect.
Priesand was ordained on June 3, 1972, by Glueck's successor as HUC-JIR's president Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati, making her the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the United States and believed to be only the second woman ever to be formally ordained in the history of Judaism.
On 26 October 2014 Rabbi Deborah Waxman was inaugurated as the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities. Waxman is believed to be the first woman rabbi and first lesbian to lead a Jewish congregational union, and the first woman and first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is both a congregational union and a seminary.
Stanton graduated from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, a Reform Jewish seminary. She says she is not concerned with being the first Black woman to become a rabbi, "I try not to focus on being the first. I focus on being the best—the best human being, the best rabbi I can be." "If I were the 50,000th, I’d still be doing what I do... Me being first was just the luck of the draw."
Stacy Offner is an openly lesbian American rabbi. She was the first openly lesbian rabbi hired by a mainstream Jewish congregation, and the first female rabbi in Minnesota. She also became the first rabbi elected chaplain of the Minnesota Senate, the first female vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism and the first woman to serve on the [U.S.] national rabbinical pension board.
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."
Bonnie Koppell is an American rabbi. She was one of the first female rabbis in the United States, and was the first woman rabbi to serve in the U.S. military. Since 2006, Rabbi Koppell has served as a rabbi to the Temple Chai community, located in Phoenix, Arizona.
Wright became the seventh woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the United Kingdom in 1986; she was ordained at Leo Baeck College, and has taught classical Hebrew there. She served as Associate Rabbi at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue from 1986 until 1989. She then served as rabbi at Radlett and Bushey Reform Synagogue in Hertfordshire from 1990 until 2003.
Rabbi Ammi taught in the name of Rabbi Johanan that even though Rabbi Simeon ruled that a dissolved fetus expelled by a woman was not unclean, Rabbi Simeon nonetheless agreed that the woman was ritually unclean as a woman who bore a child. An old man explained to Rabbi Ammi that Rabbi Johanan reasoned from the words of "If a woman conceived seed and bore." Those words imply that even if a woman bore something like "conceived seed" (in a fluid state), she was nonetheless unclean by reason of childbirth.
It is known that Rabbi Yosef Karo and Rabbi Moses of Trani were two of the four men ordained by Rabbi Yakov Beirav. The others are assumed to be Rabbi Abraham Shalom and Rabbi Israel de Curial and/or Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto. After weighing the objections of Ralbach, Rabbi Yosef Karo chose to be part of the Mahari Beirav's attempt to reinstate the Sanhedrin in his time. This is the source for the acronym MaRaN, which stands for the words "ordained by two hundred Rabbis" ("Masa'im Rabanan Nismach"). Scholars never criticized Rabbi Yosef Karo for this decision. Though there were arguments over many years about the authority of the Shulchan Aruch until it became universally accepted, yet nowhere does one criticize Rabbi Yosef Karo for the fact that he received semicha from Rabbi Yakov Beirav and transmitted it onward. Rabbi Yosef Karo is known to have used his semicha to ordain Rabbi Moses Alsheich, who in turn, ordained Rabbi Chaim Vital. Thus semicha can be traced for at least four generations. Rabbi Yosef Karo, in his commentary the Beis Yosef (Choshen Mishpat 295), answered the objections of the Ralbach by recording as definitive Jewish law the Maimonides' opinion that semicha can be renewed by consensus.
Rabbi Reguer is famously known for his piety and compassion. Once, a woman came to ask the Rabbi if a chicken was not kosher (fit for Jewish consumption) because of some blood traces. The Rabbi knew that if he ruled the chicken not kosher, then the woman and her seven children would go hungry on Shabbat. The Rabbi raised the uncooked chicken and tasted it with the tip of his tongue. The Rabbi found it tasted like bile, and ruled there were no blood traces and the chicken was kosher.
The validity of Barclay's accomplishment in Jewish law ("halakha") is subject to debate. According to the Talmud ("Gittin" 45b), a Torah scroll written by a woman for ritual use is invalid. However, several modern-day rabbis have presented arguments supporting the view that a woman can write a scroll for ritual use. Barclay herself does not view her act as a feminist or political statement, but as an "act of faith".