Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah

Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah (also known as Rabbi Elli Sarah) is a British rabbi and author.[1][2][3]

She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1977 and was ordained in 1989.[4] Sarah (who took her middle name as her surname) and Rabbi Sheila Shulman were the first openly lesbian graduates of the Leo Baeck College.[3] Sarah was also one of the first ten female rabbis ordained in Britain.[5] Sarah worked as a full-time congregational rabbi for Buckhurst Hill Reform Synagogue, 1989–94, as Director of Programmes for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain and Deputy Director of the Sternberg Centre, 1994–97, and as a freelance rabbi, including a part-time congregational appointment for the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation, 1998–2000.[6] She was appointed as the rabbi of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue in 2000.[5] In 2006 she and Jess Wood Sarah had a civil partnership at the Brighton Registry Office, followed by a Jewish marriage service (chuppah) at the Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue.[7] This, according to Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah, was the first public same-sex wedding to take place in a synagogue following the Civil Partnership Act of the United Kingdom, and the first occasion when a rabbi married her same-sex partner in their own synagogue.[7] In 2012 she was included as one of The Power 50 in The Jewish Chronicle.[5]

She has edited three books, written the book Trouble-Making Judaism, and contributed to several journals and anthologies, including writing Chapter 5, "Being a Lesbian Rabbi", in Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation, by Rebecca Alpert, Sue Levi Elwell and Shirley Idelson (15 August 2001).[6][8][9]

References

  1. ↑ Sarah, Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah (27 September 2008). "Comment is free: Face to Faith". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah". Liberal Judaism. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rocker, Simon (15 March 2012). "Why trouble should be a rabbi's middle name". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Being one of the first British female rabbis". New Statesman. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "The Power 50 – Celebrating Influential". The Jewish Chronicle. 20 September 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Our Rabbi". Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Profile: Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah". The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Religious Archives Network. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Adler, Rachel (Spring 2005). "Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation (review)". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (23): 209–212.
  9. ↑ Sarah, Elizabeth Tikvah. "About Trouble-Making Judaism". Rabbiellisarah.com. Retrieved 13 April 2015.

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