Regina Jonas

Regina Jonas (1902-1944) was ordained as a rabbi in Berlin, Germany in 1935.

Studies

After beginning her career as a teacher, Jonas enrolled in the Academy for the Science of Judaism in Berlin. She took seminary courses for liberal rabbis and educators, and graduated as an Academic Teacher of Religion.

Regina Jonas decided that she wanted to become a rabbi. She wrote a thesis called "Can a Woman Be a Rabbi According to Halachic Sources?" After examining Jewish sources, Jonas concluded that woman can become rabbis.

Ordination

Dr. Chanoth Albeik, Talmud Professor, and Leo Baeck, her teacher for many years, both declined to ordain Jonas.

Finally, on December 27, 1935, Jonas was ordained by Rabbi Max Dienemann, head of the Liberal Rabbis’ Association.

Four days later on December 31st, Leo Baeck wrote to Regina Jonas congratulating her. And six years later on February 6th 1942, Baeck signed a certificate confirming her semichah.

Work

Aftter being ordained, Jonas worked as a chaplain in various Jewish social institutions because synagogues were not open to giving a pulpit to a woman rabbi.

In the late 1930s, Jonas did work sporadically as a pulpit rabbi, filling in for rabbis who had been arrested, deported or killed by the Nazis.

Holocaust Service

On November 6, 1942 the Gestapo arrested and deported Jonas to Terezin Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia.

In Terezin, Jonas worked with Viktor Frankl, a well-known psychologist, to help Jewish prisoners cope with the shock of life in the concentration camp.

A hand-written list of her lectures, entitled, ‘Lectures of the one and only woman rabbi, Regina Jonas’ has survived in the Terezin archives. The lectures cover topics such as the history of Jewish women, Talmudic topics, Biblical themes, and Jewish beliefs, ethics, and holidays.

In 1944, Jonas was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

Legacy

For almost 50 years, Jonas was forgotten.

Then, in 1991, Dr. Katerina von Kellenbach, a researcher and lecturer in the department of philosophy and theology at St. Mary's College of Maryland, found an envelope in a small and remote archive in East Berlin.

The envelop contained the teaching certificate, written in German and Hebrew, that was awarded to Jonas in 1930 and certified her to teach Judaic studies, including the Hebrew language, in Jewish schools in Germany. The envelope also contained an impressive photo of Jonas wearing rabbinical robes and holding a book in her hand.

And, most surprisingly, the envelop contained a document, signed by Rabbi Dr. Max Dienemann, head of the Liberal Rabbis Association in the city of Offenbach, on December 25, 1935, that ordained Jonas to serve as a rabbi in Jewish communities in Germany. Thus, Regina Jonas, an inspiring and righteous individual, was finally given the recognition she deserved as Judaism's first woman rabbi.