Birth of Denise Eger, first openly gay president of the CCAR
Denise Eger, the first openly gay president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and known for her trailblazing activism, was born on March 14, 1960. Eger’s rabbinical career spanned several decades and she notably served California’s queer Jewish community at the height of the AIDS crisis.
Eger was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended the University of Southern California and was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1988. In 2013, she received a Doctor of Divinity degree, also from Hebrew Union College. She became the first permanent rabbi at Beth Chaim Chadashim in Los Angeles, a queer congregation, starting in 1988, eventually moving to Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood until her retirement in 2023. Eger believes in using activism as an essential part of her rabbinate.
Eger’s rabbinical career was a radical one; she worked as a rabbi serving the queer community at the height of the AIDS crisis, providing support and safety to her congregation and the wider network of queer Jews. In 2008, she officiated California’s first lesbian wedding.
Eger has held leadership roles in a number of queer and Jewish organizations. She served as chair on the Review Board on AIDS Drug Research and as co-chair of the Spiritual Advisory Committee of AIDS Project Los Angeles. She also was instrumental in organizing the Southern California Gay and Lesbian Jewish Professionals Group, which connects queer Jewish workers and religious leaders. In 2015, Eger was named the president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform rabbinic leadership organization. She was the first openly gay individual to hold this position.
Across her career, Eger has written a number of articles and opinion pieces as well as three books, primarily about the intersection of the queer and Jewish communities in her work. 7 Principles for Living Bravely, published in 2023, focuses on interfaith approaches to strife caused by the AIDS and COVID-19 crises. For her activism, Eger has been awarded and lauded by a number of queer groups, including the Human Rights Campaign. She is notable as a trailblazer for queer/Jewish intersectionality and as an example of activism’s place in Jewish professionalism and religious leadership.
Sources:
“Denise Eger.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Eger.
Jewish Women's Archive. "Denise Eger." The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. (Viewed on January 23, 2025), https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eger-denise.
“Rabbi Denise L. Eger.” Congregation Kol Ami Clergy. https://www.kol-ami.org/rabbi-denise-l-eger.
“Rabbi Denise L. Eger.” Congregation Kol Ami. https://web.archive.org/web/20130917181030/http://www.kol-ami.org/OneColumn.aspx?pageid=10737418270.