home   |    synopsis    |    the rabbis   |   credits   |    director   |    contact

KOL ISHAH: THE RABBI IS A WOMAN weaves together like a tapestry the voices of four diverse women rabbis, who were trained within different Jewish denominations.

Moments of vibrant lifecycle ceremonies, such as a wedding and showing a young girl how to put on tefillin, are interwoven with stories shared by one of the first women rabbis in the United States about the stages of Jewish Feminism and her own experience as a woman. Intertwined are scenes of a Talmud professor’s journey to fulfill and follow her dream of becoming a rabbi on the eve of her 60th birthday in New York.

Later on in the film, the window into the world of women rabbis opens wider and provides a glimpse into the work of one of the first German women rabbis, who serves as rabbi both at a liberal congregation in Frankfurt and in Amsterdam. In a visionary and utopian scene, women rabbis in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York are praying and dancing together.

Rabbi Chava Koster