Joan Friedman

Joan Friedman became the first woman to serve as a rabbi in Canada in 1980, when she was appointed as an Assistant Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.[1] Her appointment was followed shortly after by that of Elyse Goldstein as Assistant Rabbi from 1983-1986. Due to confusion, Goldstein has been (wrongly) noted as the first female rabbi in Canada.[2] Friedman was ordained in 1980 (before she was appointed as an Assistant Rabbi) by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.[3] Later she was named solo rabbi at B’nai Israel in Laconia, New Hampshire.[4] She also worked as a congregational rabbi in Bloomington, Indiana (Congregation Beth Shalom) for five years, as the Jewish chaplain and Instructor in Religion at Colgate University for six years, and on the faculties of American and Colgate Universities.[5] In 2003 she was the associate chaplain for Jewish and interfaith life and coordinator of the Program in Ethical Reflection at Carleton College.[5] She also taught full or part time at American University, St. Olaf College, Kenyon College, and Denison University. As of 2016 she is Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies and Chair of the MENA Studies minor program at the College of Wooster.[6]

She studied at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, and earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Jewish history from Columbia University.[5] She received her Ph.D. in 2003, and her dissertation was "Solomon B. Freehof, the ‘Reform Responsa,’ and the Shaping of American Reform Judaism."[5] Her dissertation was later published as the monograph "'Guidance, Not Governance': Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa", which was a 2013 National Jewish Book Award finalist (see below).

Awards and professional memberships

Publications

References

  1. "Women of Influence".
  2. Joseph, Norma Baumel (2001). Klein, Ruth; Dimant, Frank, eds. From Immigration to Integration, the Canadian Jewish Experience: A Millennium Edition. pp. 182–195. Elyse Goldstein is one of many Canadian Rabbis born and/or trained in the USA. In the somewhat more Orthodox Canadian Jewish community, where synagogue egalitarianism has developed much more slowly than in the United States, she has been a path breaker.
  3. "Canada Gets First Woman Rabbi". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
  4. "Women Rabbis Moving Up Rabbinic Ladder in Latest Placements; 47 Women Ordained to Date". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Carleton College". Carleton Now.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "Joan S. Friedman". Wooster.
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