Women of Valor: First Female Rabbi

This profile is part of a blog series on inspiring Jewish women from Women of Reform Judaism during March in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Born in Berlin in 1902, Regina Jones would grow up to be the first female rabbi. Many know the first female rabbi to be Sally Priesand, the first woman ordained in the Reform Movement in 1972. And that fact about Sally was the historical truth, so to speak, until the Berlin Wall came down and records of Jonas’ life were uncovered. Jonas grew up in the Scheunenviertel, a poor, predominantly Jewish area of Berlin. It was the open-minded rabbi at her Orthodox shul, Dr. Max Weyl, who encouraged the young Jonas to pursue her interest and passion for Jewish learning. At age 22, Jonas entered the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, a progressive Jewish theological school that accepted female students, although Jonas was the only woman training to become a rabbi. Her final thesis was called, “May a woman hold rabbinic office?,” and is a testament to her broad knowledge of Jewish sources and halacha, Jewish law. Of the many arguments she made for ordination of women, Jonas wrote in her thesis that female rabbis are “a cultural necessity.”[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"90451","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright size-medium wp-image-14621","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"192","height":"300","alt":"Jonas-Regina"}}]] Jonas was not granted s'micha (ordination) until 1935. From 1937 onwards, as more and more rabbis fled Europe and places became available, Jonas was employed by the Berlin Jewish Gemeinde and made a name for herself in particular for her pastoral work. Jonas cared for the Jewish community in Germany as they were entering perhaps the most trying time in modern history. On November 6, 1942, Jonas and her mother were deported to Theresienstadt, where Jonas continued her work as a rabbi, offering comfort and spiritual guidance to the other prisoners. Two years later, on October 12, 1944, Regina Jonas and her mother, Sara Jonas, were sent to Auschwitz, where they were likely killed that same day. Among the people who were with Jonas in Theresienstadt were such prominent figures as Leo Baeck and Victor Frankl, who never publicly spoke of or mentioned Jonas after her death. The final paragraphs of the Yad Vashem biography of Jonas asks crucial questions about her legacy: “Why was such an incredible woman and all of her achievements and sacrifices forgotten? Why did such luminaries as Leo Baeck and Viktor Frankl, men who worked with her and believed in her, never mention her name after the war? We may never have a satisfactory answer for these painful questions. But we can right a wrong. By learning and teaching the story of Rabbiner Regina Jonas, we can pay tribute not only to history’s first ordained female rabbi, but also to a true “woman of valor” who gave selflessly of herself to her people in their greatest hour of need. Regina Jonas deserves this.” Image courtesy of Jewish Women's Archives.