Regina Jonas: The First Female Rabbi

by Kenzie Anderson

After forty days of rainfall, and after a couple failed attempts, Noah awaited the return of the dove. Soon, she glided into view. Relieved, he went to check on her. Tending to her, he found an olive leaf in her grasp. Dry land had appeared once more. The flood had ended. With a single leaf, hope was restored. 

In 1902, Regina Jonas was born in Scheunenviertel, a poor Jewish community in Berlin, Germany. 1 Like Noah’s dove, Regina hoped to bring faith and hope to people everywhere. Though there had never been a female rabbi before, she was determined to become one. 

Regina’s desires to be a rabbi were nurtured from an early age by Max Weyl, who officiated the Rykestrasse Synagogue and had a positive attitude towards religious education for girls. For a time, Weyl met with Regina weekly to tutor her. 2 After acing secondary school with flying colors in all of her classes pertaining to Hebrew and religion, she began her studies at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums or the Berlin Academy for the Science of Judaism in 1924. 3

It was a liberal school and therefore was one of the only schools that would even consider allowing a woman to train to be a rabbi. It was there that she would put together her thesis, “May a Woman Hold Rabbinic Office?”, in which she demonstrated her vast knowledge of religion and devout belief in Judaism. 4 She gave evidence of many women who had previously held religious office in the Torah. Besides outright sexism (though she didn’t use those words), she claimed that there was no reason a woman could not hold rabbinic office in the orthodox Jewish religion. 5 Though her thesis was received warmly and with praise, she was not awarded with anything more than a teaching degree. 6 Her dreams still flew, however, and this defeat was only a mere setback. 

After her graduation in 1930, Regina worked at several girls’ schools teaching religion. She was loved by her girls and taught religion successfully. By 1933, many students had been kicked out of public schools due to rising antisemitism, so the need for religious teachers increased. Regina taught everyone that she could. While dedicating her life to teaching and service, she caught the eye of Rabbi Max Dienemann, who admired her love of humanity. He agreed to help her achieve her life goal. 7

In 1935, Regina was able to be ordained a rabbi. Though she had achieved her dream, it did not look like the traditional role that she had perhaps envisioned. She did not have a pulpit to speak at or a congregation to call her own and instead was a teacher at many liberal synagogues. She also served as a chaplain in a local women’s prison and visited the sick and elderly in local hospitals. 8 This was not a happy time for Jews in Germany, however. Many of her male peers either fled or were arrested. 9 Many congregations were left without leaders, and though it was dangerous, she stayed to teach and take care of her elderly mother. For several years she brought hope and faith to many, just as she had grown up wanting to do. 10

In 1942, she was caught and deported to a ghetto in Theresienstadt. This did not deter her. She gracefully glided in and continued to tend to the sick and elderly. Her teaching and dedication only became stronger. In the twenty-four lectures delivered by Regina in the ghetto, she bore testimony of her complete devotion to God. It is in these lectures that perhaps her most famous quote is found. It reads, “Our Jewish people was planted by God into history as a blessed nation. ‘Blessed by God’ means to bestow blessings, lovingkindness and loyalty – regardless of place and situation. Humility before God, selfless love for His creatures, sustain the world.” 11

For two years, like the dove that brought back the olive leaf, Jonas brought hope to others. Then, in 1944, Regina and Sara Jonas were deported from the ghetto to Auschwitz, where they were both tragically murdered. 12 She was murdered for being Jewish, which during the Second World War became a story the world is all too familiar with.  

Due to the tragic events of the Holocaust and the spread of communism, the records of Regina Jonas were almost lost. She lived on the east side of Berlin, so all of her records remained sealed behind the Iron Curtain. 13 In 1972, Sally Priesand was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and pronounced the first female rabbi. 14 Until the Berlin Wall fell and archives were discovered, Regina Jonas was all but forgotten. When her records were found, the world saw that the first female rabbi came thirty years before. 15 Sally Priesand deserves recognition for being the first female rabbi in the United States, but Regina Jonas ended a flood of women being excluded from holding rabbinic office and having that formal place in Judaism. To date, there are almost a thousand female rabbis. Regina Jonas opened the gates for Jewish women and was commemorated in Theresienstadt for all of her service. 16

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Footnotes

1 Elisa Klapheck, “Regina Jonas,” Jewish Women’s Archive, 27 February 2009, 

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina.

2 Klapheck, “Regina.”

3 Sarah Eismann, “Regina Jonas: Pastor and Rabbi in Theresienstadt,” Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, 11 August 2022, https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/regina-jonas.html.

4 Eismann, “Regina Jonas.”

5 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

6 Eismann, “Regina Jonas.”

7 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

8 Eismann, “Regina Jonas.”

9 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

10 Eismann, “Regina Jonas.”

11 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

12 Eismann, “Regina Jonas.”

13 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

14 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

15 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”

16 Klapheck, “Regina Jonas.”