Regina Jonas
| Regina Jonas | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 August 1902 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 12 October or 12 December 1944 (aged 42) Auschwitz concentration camp, General Government |
| Occupation | Rabbi |
Regina Jonas (3 August 1902 – 12 October/12 December 1944) was a Berlin-born rabbi. In 1935, she became the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi. There had been some women before Jonas that made significant contributions to Jewish thought, such as the Maiden of Ludmir, Asenath Barzani, and Lily Montagu, who acted in similar roles without being ordained.
Jonas became orphaned at a very young age. Like many women at that time, she followed a career as a teacher but was not content with the career she chose. In Berlin, she enrolled at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies)—the Academy for the Science of Judaism, and took seminary courses for liberal rabbis and educators. There she graduated as an "Academic Teacher of Religion."
With the goal of becoming a rabbi, Jonas wrote a thesis that would have been an ordination requirement. Her topic was "Can a Woman Be a Rabbi According to Halachic Sources?" Her conclusion, based on Biblical, Talmudic, and rabbinical sources, was that she should be ordained. However, the Talmud professor responsible for ordinations refused her because she was a woman. Jonas applied to Rabbi Leo Baeck, spiritual leader of German Jewry, who had taught her at the seminary. He also refused because the ordination of a female rabbi would have caused massive intra-Jewish communal problems with the Orthodox rabbinate in Germany.
On December 27, 1935, Regina Jonas received her semicha and was ordained by the liberal Rabbi Max Dienemann, who was the head of the Liberal Rabbis' Association, in Offenbach am Main. Jonas found work as a chaplain in various Jewish social institutions while attempting to find a pulpit.
Because of Nazi persecution, many rabbis emigrated and many small communities were without rabbinical support. The duress of Nazi persecution made it impossible for Jonas to hold services in a synagogue, and she was soon ordered into forced labor. Despite this, she continued her rabbinical work as well as teaching and holding services.
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