Background Information:

Regina Jonas was the first woman rabbi, ordained in Germany in 1935. She first served the Jewish community of Berlin and then continued to guide the Jewish community of the Theresienstadt concentration camp after her deportation there. After her death in Auschwitz, her story was lost for decades. In 2014, for the 70th anniversary of her death, a group of women rabbis and scholars traveled to Germany to retrace Rabbi Jonas’ journey, reading her sermons, discussing her impact, and dedicating a memorial plaque at Theresienstadt in a moving ceremony honoring her memory. An award-winning short documentary film was made by the Jewish Women’s Archive about their remarkable journey. You can also read reflections on the experience from some of the participants and coverage of the trip from around the web. To learn more about Rabbi Jonas, visit JWA’s Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Below, explore resources for learning and teaching about Regina Jonas in your community.

[You may wish to note that it seems that Rabbi Grimberg isn’t aware of Rabbi Jonas, since she describes Rabbi Eisenberg Sasso as the second female Rabbi in Jewish history, when she is actually the third, after Regina Jonas and Rabbi Priesand.]

• “What does this clip tell us about the importance of role models? How can role models help us to redefine our sense of what is possible for ourselves and our communities?”
• “Rabbi Grimberg remarks that she noticed Rabbi Eisenberg Sasso was ‘a young woman with a child.’ Do you think it was particularly important for Rabbi Grimberg to see a woman in the role of rabbi?”
• “How have your perceptions of rabbis or other leaders shifted over time as the people filling those roles have become more diverse? How do our communities change as women take on roles from which they had previously been excluded?”

Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses

“In this clip, Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses, the first woman from the Syrian Jewish community to become a rabbi, reflects on one way in which her rabbinic education was tailored for a model of rabbi that didn’t quite fit her.”

• Show clip of Rabbi Cohler-Esses

• “What does this clip tell us about the importance of role models? How can role models help us to redefine our sense of what is possible for ourselves and our communities?”
• “Rabbi Cohler-Esses’ story powerfully illustrates one way in which the model of ‘what a rabbi does’ which was being presented to her was based on the assumption that the rabbi was a man with a wife who was willing and able to assume all household, family, and hosting responsibilities. In what other ways are our images of who a rabbi is and what they are supposed to do gendered?”
• “How have your perceptions of rabbis or other leaders shifted over time as the people filling those roles have become more diverse? How do our communities change as women take on roles from which they had previously been excluded?”
• “Regina Jonas believed that women who became rabbis should remain unmarried. What may have influenced this belief? What challenges do leaders, of whatever gender, face in balancing their responsibilities to their communities with other parts of their lives?”

Rabbi Gesa Ederberg

“In this clip, Rabbi Gesa Ederberg, the first woman to serve as a rabbi in Berlin since Regina Jonas, reflects on her feelings of connection to Rabbi Jonas.”

• Show clip of Rabbi Ederberg

• “What does this clip tell us about the importance of role models? How can role models help us to redefine our sense of what is possible for ourselves and our communities?”
• “Rabbi Ederberg notes that both she and Regina Jonas began their work in roles where the community was more comfortable with a woman leader - such as teaching and pastoral counseling - and were only later able to move into other areas of rabbinic work, such as preaching and officiating services. Have you noticed such patterns in your life or in your communities? What allows for these patterns to shift over time?”

Connecting Rabbi Jonas’ Story to the Jewish Year

Although Rabbi Jonas’ exact date of death is not known, based on the time of her deportation to Auschwitz, the Shabbat on which we read Parashat Bereishit has been chosen as her yahrzeit (memorial) date. This is especially appropriate because as the first woman rabbi, Rabbi Jonas represents an important new beginning in Jewish history, just as Parashat Bereishit tells of the beginning of creation and the beginnings of humanity. Therefore, the time around that Shabbat is a particularly powerful occasion for programming or teaching honoring Rabbi Jonas’ memory. If you are teaching or speaking about Regina Jonas near that date, you may choose to incorporate any of the ideas below for connecting her story to timely themes in the Torah and liturgical cycle.

Btzelem Elokim Bara Oto: Creation in the Image of the Divine

In Parashat Bereishit (Genesis 1:27), we are told:

וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ, בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ:  זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, בָּרָא אֹתָם.

Gd created the human in the Divine image, in the image of Gd, did the Divine create the human; male and female did Gd create them.

This verse emphasizes that each human being, of whatever gender, is a reflection of the image of the Divine. Rabbi Regina Jonas herself powerfully reflected on the idea of the fundamental divinity of all people and the implications of this idea for her choice to pursue the rabbinate in her writings in the women’s page of Central-Verein-Zeitung (June 23, 1938), a German Jewish newspaper:

“I hope a time will come for all of us in which there will be no more questions on the subjects of “woman”: for as long as there are questions, something is wrong. But if I must say what drove me as a women to become a rabbi, two elements come to mind: My belief in the godly calling and my love for people. God has placed abilities and callings in our hearts, without regard to gender. Thus each of us has the duty, whether man or woman, to realize those gifts God has given. If you look at things this way, one takes woman and man for what they are: human beings.”

Bereishit—Beginning and Beginning Again

The Torah starts with two different stories of the creation of human beings: one in which men and women are created equal, in God’s image, and one in which Eve is made out of Adam’s rib, as a companion to Adam. Beginnings can be messy—it’s hard to tell the story of something completely new, to articulate something unprecedented. It’s hard to identify which step in a complicated process was the real beginning. But the step we call the beginning, and the words we use to describe it, change the whole story. Many of us are familiar with the story of Sally Priesand, the first American woman rabbi, ordained in 1972. But the story of women in the rabbinate actually starts earlier than that, with the ordination of Regina Jonas.

Jonas felt called to serve the Jewish community from an early age and studied for the rabbinate, but after her mentor died, she spent the next several years struggling to find someone willing to ordain her. Throughout the Holocaust, she served as a spiritual leader to various congregations in Berlin, and continued to preach and counsel even after she was sent to the camps. But after her death, she was forgotten for decades, unmentioned by those who had known her, until the fall of the Berlin Wall gave us access to her writings. Was the Holocaust the only reason why she was forgotten for so long? Were we simply not ready for the idea of a woman rabbi yet? And what do we gain when we choose to begin the story of women in the rabbinate with her?

Genesis: Learning the Stories of our Mythic Foremothers

Parashat Bereishit begins the book of Genesis, which includes the stories of our foremothers Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. In reading the stories of these mythic female role models, we can learn so much about our community, its history, and ourselves. Many of us draw on their stories for inspiration and connection to Jewish women’s spiritual and interpersonal experiences. Similarly, learning about and honoring  the memory of our foremother Regina Jonas provides us with the opportunity to expand our understanding of our community, its history, and the possibilities for our future as individuals and a Jewish community, and to connect to and be inspired by the Jewish women from whom we are spiritually descended.

Sukkot—The Ushpizin

Parashat Bereishit is immediately preceded by the holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. On Sukkot, there is a Jewish folk tradition of Ushpizin, inviting guests into the sukkah, both actual, live guests and symbolic ones whose stories can inspire us and offer a chance for reflection. Traditionally, the symbolic visitors have been biblical and historic figures like Abraham and Moses (with modern, feminist additions like Miriam and Esther), those who found refuge and insight in the wilderness or who led the Jewish people through moments of intense vulnerability and hardship.

Regina Jonas, the first woman ordained as a rabbi, is a contemporary example of someone who led her people through such a moment. During the Holocaust, as more and more male rabbis were deported to concentration camps, Regina Jonas became spiritual leader to several congregations in Berlin before she herself was deported. Even in the camps, she continued to teach, preach, and counsel her fellow prisoners. In this, she was part of a larger effort of Jewish leaders working to preserve the Jewish community and Jewish tradition in the worst of circumstances. As we make our way through Sukkot and into Simchat Torah, what would it mean to invite Regina Jonas into the sukkah, honoring her as a crucial Jewish leader? The Sukkah reminds us of our fragility and the temporary nature of our existence. What would it mean for us to remember Regina Jonas’ fragility as a victim of the Holocaust whose life was cut short and whose story was forgotten for so long alongside our memories of her heroism and strength?

Do Not Go Near a Woman—Making the Invisible Visible

This week, we begin again the cycle of reading the Torah, the stories at the core of our Jewish identity. Before God spoke to the Children of Israel at Sinai, Moses told the people to prepare themselves, admonishing them, “Do not go near a woman.” (Ex. 19:15) Commentators have wondered: Since Moses seems only to be addressing the men; does this mean that women weren’t present at Sinai, weren’t part of the covenant between God and the Jews? The feminist theologian Judith Plaskow points out that these are Moses’ words, not God’s; the women may be invisible to Moses, invisible to the historical record, but they were surely present. This week, we commemorate the yahrzeit of Regina Jonas, the first woman ordained as a rabbi, who perished in the Holocaust and was forgotten for decades, made invisible, before she was restored to her rightful place of honor in Jewish history.

During the 45-year period when her story was lost, women fought for the right to be ordained, but without access to Jonas’s story, they had no role models for how to do so. When we forget our history, our stories, every person seeking inclusion is perceived as an exception: the woman who wants to lead services, the deaf person who wants to participate fully in Jewish learning, the autistic child who desires a bar mitzvah, the gay couple who wants to be welcomed into the community. It’s hard to make broad and lasting change through a series of “special cases.” It’s only when we know our full history, when we make the invisible visible, that we as a community can work together and build on each other’s efforts to make sure we’re all standing together at Sinai.

Memorial Ritual for Regina Jonas

Near her chosen yahrtzeit, Parashat Bereishit, or at any other time of year you may choose to memorialize Regina Jonas using some or all of these ritual suggestions.

• Share some of Rabbi Jonas’ own words, from this undated sermon given on the occasion of Yizkor, the memorial prayer recited several times a year on major holidays:

“We are living today in a time of trial by fire, testing the strength of our love for children, gratitude, the mutual support of family and friends in these alien conditions. Many people wanted, in spite of all obstacles, to preserve a true sense of Jewish family and peoplehood. Our sages say that the Torah was only given to Israel when the people presented guarantees, and only after they offered their children as guarantees to God. If worry and despondency seek our undoing, the we should think about Yizkor in such a way that we identify ourselves as “arevim tovim” (good guarantees), standing up for Israel, carrying on the work of our ancestors from Sinai…and to thank God sincerely that Yizkor has become the celebration of our souls.”

HaRav Malka Reina bat Zev Wolf v’Sarah

הרב מלכה ריינא בת זאב וואלף ושרה

• You may also wish to include other powerful teachings from Rabbi Jonas’ surviving writings, which were read at the memorial service in her honor held at Terezin on the 70th anniversary of her death.
• Light a yahrzeit candle
• Include Rabbi Regina Jonas’ name on your community’s yahrzeit list. Her Hebrew name was:
  • Recite traditional memorial prayers, such as Kaddish or El Maleh Rachamim
  • It is traditional to honor the memory of someone who has passed away, especially a teacher of Torah like Regina Jonas, by studying or teaching Torah in their honor. See suggestions for connecting her story to Torah.

Online Learning with JWA

Learn about Regina Jonas and her legacy, and gain tips for incorporating her story into your teaching, in this online learning program with JWA Rabbinic Intern Sarah Mulhern.