Американың алғашқы әйел равині

First female ordained rabbi in America

Sally Jane Priesand (born June 27, 1946) 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. Her family lit Shabbat candles, celebrated Chanukah and had a Passover Seder to which the children were encouraged to invite a non Jewish friend to share in the festivities and learn about Judaism. The family first attended a non egalitarian Conservative synagogue, and later attended Beth Israel West Temple, a Reform congregation on Cleveland's West Side, where Priesand began to display a commitment to Judaism and Jewish life as a teenager. Priesand did not become Bat Mitzvah but was confirmed and continued her religious school education through the twelfth grade. She later described her decision to become a rabbi as "an affirmation of my belief in God, in the worth of each individual, and in Judaism as a way of life." And another letter stated: " You might also ascertain from Rabbi Litt, and he in turn from other rabbis, just what would be the disposition of the rabbinate respecting someone like you who is interested in being ordained by the College Institute. While we have had women students, none so far, has taken the full course of study which would lead to graduation and ordination as a rabbi. Therefore, some clear knowledge on your part of what it will mean to you to have graduated from our school is essential for you prior to your thinking about entering. The question of a woman as a rabbi is a question for the rabbis rather than for the school. There is no attempt on our part to discourage you but to direct your thinking. " Entering the University of Cincinnati in 1964, she was accepted into the joint program of HUC JIR and the University of Cincinnati.

Upon her graduation, she was admitted to HUC JIR's rabbinic school without undergoing a formal application process, being the only woman among 35 men. While still in rabbinical school, she received a great deal of attention from the media. In April 1971, she was the subject of an article in The New York Times, titled "Her Ambition Is to Become a Rabbi – And a Housewife", in which she stated: "I'm not an active supporter of women's lib. I don't need it. But I do think the feminist movement is important because it is time for us to overcome psychological and emotional objections. We must fulfill our potential as creative individuals." Despite opposition – many said she was at HUC JIR to marry a rabbi and become a rebbetzin rather than to officiate as a rabbi – she became the first woman at Hebrew Union College to make it to ordination, an accomplishment she credits to her parents and to Rabbi Nelson Glueck, the college's president who died a few months before her ordination. Her thesis for her Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters degree, "Historic and Changing Role of the Jewish Woman", published in 1975 under the title Judaism and the New Woman, highlighted the changing role of women in Jewish history and was meant to advance their emancipation in Jewish religious life.

Upon ordination, she was interviewed by some synagogues for her "public value, so they could say they were first", as she says, but others would not speak to her, and she was the last of her class to get a job. She was offered a position at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, where she served for seven years under Rabbi Edward Klein, but rejected the traditional model which encourages rabbis to look for larger pulpits and remained at Monmouth Reform Temple, a congregation of 365 families, Also during her rabbinate, Monmouth Reform Temple created a Social Action Committee which launched a nationally recognized gun safety campaign (Please ASK, which was given an award in 2003 by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism),

Priesand appeared in a 2005 documentary, titled And the Gates Opened: Women in the Rabbinate, which features stories of and interviews with her, rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, and rabbi Amy Eilberg.

In 1987, Priesand was diagnosed with breast cancer, which struck again eight years later, and in 2003, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She was able to continue working during her treatments for breast cancer, but the thyroid cancer treatments forced her to take a three month leave of absence. Her illness affected her rabbinate, making her "more sensitive and aware of the needs of others who were dealing with health crises", she said. On December 6, 2010, at Temple Reyim in Newton, Massachusetts, Priesand and the other three first American ordained women rabbis of four denominations of American Judaism met for the first time in an event called "First Lights", videotaped by the Los Angeles based Story Archive of Women Rabbis, a project which videotapes interviews with women rabbis from all streams of Judaism and archives their stories online. Priesand together with Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, the first Reconstructionist female rabbi ordained in 1974, Amy Eilberg, the first Conservative female rabbi ordained in 1985, and Sara Hurwitz (see below), lit Chanuka candles together with some 30 other women rabbis, and then spoke about their experiences.

Priesand was honored in several events on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of her ordination in 2012. In March 2012, the Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis celebrated the 40th anniversary of women's ordination by calling Priesand to the Torah at the Monday morning prayer service; through May 2012, the Union for Reform Judaism was running a blog to celebrate "Forty Years of Women" in honor of the anniversary; and Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion honored her as special guest at the June 2, 2012 ordination ceremony at Plum Street Temple, during which 13 candidates were ordained – eight of them women. On the day of the anniversary on June 3, 2012, Priesand, Eisenberg Sasso, Eilberg, and Hurwitz met for a "Four First Women Rabbis" discussion at Monmouth Reform Temple for a celebration honoring the four first women rabbis ordained in North America in their respective denominations, and the 40th anniversary of Priesand's ordination.

In 2014 Priesand was one of those who attended the ceremony when a memorial plaque to Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi, was unveiled at Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, where Regina Jonas had been deported to and worked in for two years. There is a short documentary about the trip on which this plaque was unveiled, titled In the Footsteps of Regina Jonas, which includes Priesand.

Two exhibits on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion marked the fiftieth anniversary of Priesand's ordination; Priesand herself was the keynote speaker at the opening reception for them. One of those exhibits was the art exhibit “Holy Sparks”, which featured 24 Jewish women artists, who had each created an artwork about a female rabbi who was a first in some way. Joan Roth created the artwork about Priesand.

Priesand is the author of Judaism and the New Woman, and a contributor to Women Rabbis: Exploration and Celebration, and to A Treasury of Favorite Sermons by Leading American Rabbis. She also wrote the foreword to the book The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate, published in 2016, which contains one piece called "Letters from Hebrew Union College to Sally J. Priesand" and another called "The Ordination of Sally J. Priesand, A Historic Interview".

In 1973, Priesand was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Florida International University. From 1981 to 1983, Bonnie Tiburzi put on three “Women of Accomplishment” luncheons for the Wings Club honoring certain women, including Priesand. In 1997, Priesand received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC JIR). Also in 2006 upon her retirement, Monmouth Reform Temple set up the "Sally Priesand Endowment Fund for the Future" in her honor to preserve and protect the temple's legacy. The Rabbi Sally J. Priesand WRJ Award was created to honor the 45th anniversary of Priesand's ordination. The award is given out once every year to a graduating Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati campus woman, chosen because she "exemplif[ies] the mission and values of WRJ and embod[ies] the qualities that Rabbi Priesand has exhibited throughout her career, including her clarity of vision, her commitment to excellence, her professionalism, her dedication to the continuity of Reform Judaism, her passion, and her perseverance.