Rabbi LAURA GELLER, Los Angeles
Rabbi Laura Geller is the Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills,
California. She is the first woman to be selected to lead a major metropolitan
synagogue. Rabbi Geller graduated from Brown University in 1971 and was
ordained by the Hebrew Union College in 1976. She was the third woman
in the Reform Movement to become a rabbi. She is married, and she is the
mother of several chidren and step-children.
Rabbi JUDITH HAUPTMAN, New York
Rabbi Judith Hauptman grew up in Brooklyn, NY,attended a Conservative
synagogue, became Orthodox in her teen years at the Yeshivah of Flatbush,
but returned to Conservative Judaism in college. She is the first woman
ever to receive a PhD in Talmud. Since 1974, Judith Hauptman has been
teaching Talmud at JTS, The Jewish Theological Seminary for Conservative
Judaism. She serves as the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic
Culture. In 2003, she followed in her students’ footsteps and was
herself ordained as a rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion. Shortly
after her ordination, she founded Ohel Ayalah, an outreach project to
young Jews, named in memory of her mother.
Rabbi ELISA KLAPHECK, Frankfurt
Rabbi Elisa Klapheck is the rabbi of the Egalitarian Minyan in Frankfurt
am Main. She is one of very few rabbis serving today in Germany. Since
the 90‘s Elisa Klapheck has been strongly engaged in a revival of
Judaism in Germany. She co-founded an Egalitarian Minyan in Berlin, and
she published a book on the world’s first woman rabbi, Regina Jonas
(Berlin 1902 – Auschwitz 1944). After years of study with well known
mentors, Elisa Klapheck was ordained as rabbi by the ALEPH Rabbinical
Program in Colorado in 2004. Rabbi Klapheck also was rabbi at Beit Ha-Chidush
(House of Renewal), an egalitarian Jewish Congregation in Amsterdam, and
in 2009 Rabbi Klapheck was officially installed as rabbi of the Egalitarian
Minyan in Frankfurt am Main.
Rabbi CHAVA KOSTER, New York
Rabbi Chava Koster is the first woman from the Netherlands to be ordained
a rabbi. In 1999, Rabbi Chava Koster became the rabbi of the Village Temple,
a congregation in New York City. Before joining the Village Temple as
rabbi, she was Associate Rabbi at Temple B'nai Abraham in Livingston,
New Jersey. Rabbi Koster studied at the Academy for Jewish Religion in
New York and was ordained as rabbi in 1997. In 1993, she was awarded a
Masters Degree in Jewish Studies and Jewish Education from JTS, The Jewish
Theological Seminary for Conservative Judaism.
Rabbi Laura Geller