Denise Eger
| Denise Eger | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 14, 1960 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | USA |
| Occupation | Rabbi |
Denise Leese (Davida) Eger (born March 14, 1960) is an American Reform rabbi. In March 2015 she became president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in North America; she is the first openly gay person to hold that position.
Eger was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She studied voice at Memphis State University, then transferred to the University of Southern California, where she majored in religion and graduated in 1982. She then studied at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, from which she earned a master's degree in 1985, and went on to pursue rabbinic studies. Prior to ordination, Eger served an internship in 1985-86 under Rabbi Solomon F. Kleinman at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, California. Rabbi Eger was ordained in 1988 at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College, following which she served as the first full-time rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim in Los Angeles, the world's first gay and lesbian synagogue recognized by Reform Judaism. She came out as gay in 1990 in a story in the Los Angeles Times. In 1992, she and 35 other people founded Congregation Kol Ami, a synagogue intended to serve both gay and non-gay Jews in West Hollywood, California.
She previously served as the chair of the Search Alliance Institutional Review Board and Treasurer of the Women's Rabbinic Network, and is a past president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis. She chaired the Gay and Lesbian Rabbinic Network of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and is past chair of the Task Force on Gays and Lesbians in the Rabbinate. She is a founding member of the Religion and Faith Council of the Human Rights Campaign and a founding executive committee member of California Faith for Equality. She is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute.
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