Paula Ackerman
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Paula Ackerman (née Paula Herskovitz, December 7, 1893 - January 12, 1989) was the first woman to perform rabbinical functions in the United States.
She first led a congregation on December 12, 1950, when her husband, Rabbi William Ackerman, died unexpectedly on November 30 of that year. Mrs. Ackerman led the congregation at the Temple Beth Israel in Meridian, Mississippi, until a replacement was found in 1953 (she was not formally ordained, and served in the function for three years without having gone through the schooling process for ordination).
Regarding her chances of being selected for the job, Mrs. Ackerman wrote to a friend, "I also know how revolutionary the idea is—therefore it seems to be a challenge that I pray I can meet. If I can just plant a seed for the Jewish woman's larger participation—if perhaps it will open a way for women students to train for congregational leadership—then my life would have some meaning." A woman would not be ordained in Reform Judaism until 1972, when Sally Priesand was formally made a rabbi.
Mrs. Ackerman was born in Pensacola, Florida, and later performed services at her home temple, Temple Beth-El, starting in 1962 and into the mid-1960s. She eventually moved back to Mississippi and died there in 1989.
External links
- Time article on Ackerman from 1951 (cached results from Yahoo!) (http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=Paula+Ackerman+rabbi&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&u=www.time.com/time/archive/printout/0%2C23657%2C888921%2C00.html&w=paula+ackerman+rabbi&d=581D9DC676&icp=1&.intl=us)
- 1950 story on Ackerman, from the Jewish Women's Archive (http://www.jwa.org/this_week/week50.html)
