Amy Eilberg
| Amy Eilberg | |
|---|---|
| Rabbi | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 12, 1954 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Denomination | Conservative |
| Parents | Joshua and Gladys Eilberg |
Amy Eilberg (born October 12, 1954) is the first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism. She was ordained in 1985 by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, one of the academic centers and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism.
Eilberg was born October 12, 1954, in Philadelphia, USA. Her father, Joshua Eilberg, represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives, and her mother, Gladys, was a social worker. Her parents were proud but not observant Jews, but when Eilberg was fourteen, her newfound commitment to traditional Jewish observance led her mother to make their home kitchen conform to the Jewish dietary laws kashrut. In high school, she was involved in the United Synagogue Youth and she later worked at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, in New England, and in Wisconsin.
Eilberg attended Brandeis University from 1972 to 1976, continuing to develop her deep interest in Judaism. She majored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and also became an active member of Hillel International on campus. While at Brandeis she learned how to read the Torah and began to pray with tallit and tephillin. In 1976 she graduated from Brandeis and enrolled in Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) to do graduate work in Talmud. After receiving her master's degree, she taught at Midreshet Yerushalayim, an intensive egalitarian yeshiva program run by the JTS in Israel. When she found out that JTS had tabled the question of women's ordination in 1979, she was disappointed but she began to pursue doctoral studies in Talmud, first at Neve Schechter, the JTS branch in Jerusalem, and then at JTS in New York City. She later enrolled in the Smith College School for Social Work and in 1984 received her masters of social work.
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