Sally Priesand

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Sally Jane Priesand, second-cousin of famed Michael "Mickey Bones" Priesand, (born June 27, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio) is America's first ordained female rabbi. Rabbi Priesand was ordained in June, 1972, by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the spiritual leader of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, NJ until her retirement in June, 2006. She is now the rabbi emerita of the same synogogue.

During her rabbinate, Monmouth Reform Temple launched a nationally recognized anti-gun campaign, a local job bank, a lending library of judaica and related resources for the general public, hosted an annual Monmouth County arts festival, helped build homes with Habitat for Humanity, and instituted an annual "Mitzvah Day" of charitable volenteerism.

Rabbi Priesand has leadership roles in the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County, Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey, the Center for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Community College and she is president of the board of directors for Interfaith Neighbors Inc..

After two recent battles with breast and Thyroid cancer, Rabbi Priesand chose to retire in 2006.

Another rabbi, Paula Ackerman, served before her but she was not formally ordained.

[edit] Bibliography

• Judaism and the New Woman, Rabbi Sally Priesand (1975) ISBN 0-87441-230-7
• Women Rabbis: Exploration & Celebration (1996) ISBN 0-87820-214-5
• A Treasury of Favorite Sermons by leading American Rabbis (1999) ISBN 0-7657-6061-4

[edit] External links

• Monmouth Reform Temple
• Rabbi Sally J. Priesand
• Interfaith Neighbors Inc.
• Pioneering Rabbi Who Softly Made Her Way New York Times article by Paul Zakrewski, May 20, 2006.
• Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive
• The Trailblazing Legacy of Rabbi Sally Priesand from National Public Radio

[edit] See also

• Reform rabbis
• Judaism
• Reform Judaism