Rachel Isaacs

Rachel Isaacs was the first openly lesbian rabbi ordained by the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary ("JTS"), which occurred in May 2011.^[1]

Biography

Isaacs earned her B.A. from Wellesley College in 2005, where she was the Hillel Co-President.^{[2] [3]} She transferred to JTS from the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in her third year of rabbinical school.^[4]

She is now the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Waterville, Maine, which is a Conservative synagogue,^[2][5] as well as the Dorothy "Bibby" Levine Alfond Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College.^[6] She is also the director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life, also at Colby.^[7]

Isaacs was mentored at JTS by Rabbi Carie Carter, who placed the tallit across Isaacs' shoulders at her ordination.^[4] Rabbi Carter was a closeted lesbian during her time at JTS, and wrote the originally-anonymous chapter "In Hiding" about lesbian Conservative rabbis in the 2001 book Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation.^[1] Rabbi Carter is now openly lesbian, and works at Brooklyn's Park Slope Jewish Center, which Rachel Isaacs interned at.^[1]

In 2014, Isaacs was named one of "America's Most Inspiring Rabbis" by the Jewish Daily Forward.^[5] In 2016, she delivered the evening Hanukkah benediction at the White House.^[8]

See also

• Timeline of women rabbis