Helga Newmark

Helga Newmark, née Helga Hoflich, (1932–2012) was the first female Holocaust survivor ordained as a rabbi. ^[1]^[2]^[3]

Biography

She was born in Germany, and was sent to the concentration camps of Westerbork, Bergen-Belsen, and Terezin (known in German as Theresienstadt) in Czechoslovakia. ^[4]^[5] She was freed at the age of twelve, and immigrated to America at the age of sixteen.^[5] When she had her first child, a daughter, she began to wonder how she would answer her daughter's questions about God.^[4] After considering several religions, she joined a [Conservative ] synagogue, Temple Emanuel in [Ridgefield Park, New Jersey]^[4] There she learned so much from the rabbi and his wife that she eventually became principal of the synagogue.^[4]

She was accepted to the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion on her second attempt, and was ordained in 2000 after eight years of study.^[6] She served as a rabbi at Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, for two years.^[6]

Publications

She is the author of the book Letters to the Wise One: A Holocaust Survivor's Conversations with God, published in 2007.^[3]

References

^ "docs.google.com". Archived from the original on 2021-03-07. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
^ "Helga Newmark, rabbi late in life, dies - NorthJersey.com". Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
^ ^a ^b HUC-JIR: Press Room - In Memoriam: Rabbi Helga Newmark
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Holocaust survivor ordained as a Reform rabbi at age 67 | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California". 26 May 2000. Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
^ ^a ^b "Remembering Helga Newmark, the First Female Holocaust Survivor to Become an Ordained Rabbi – Tablet Magazine". 13 March 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-06-23. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
^ ^a ^b Helga Newmark, rabbi late in life, dies : page 2 - NorthJersey.com

Women rabbis and Torah scholars

Timeline of women rabbis

Pre-modern
figures

Bible and Talmud	Deborah (1107–1067 BCE) Bruriah (2nd century)
Medieval and early modern era	Rashi's daughters (11th–12th century) Bat ha-Levi (12th century) Paula Dei Mansi (13th century) Miriam Shapira-Luria (14th century) Fioretta of Modena (1522–1580) Bayla Falk (16th century) Eva Bacharach (1580–1651) Asenath Barzani (1590–1670) Frehat Bat Avraham (d. 1756) Maiden of Ludmir (1805–1888)

Modern figures

Ray Frank (1861–1948)
Lily Montagu (1873–1963)
Regina Jonas (1902–1944)
Tehilla Lichtenstein (1893–1973)
Paula Ackerman (1893–1989)
Martha Neumark (1904–1981)
Avis Clamitz (1908-1991)
Helen Levinthal (1910–1989)
Sally Priesand (b. 1946)
Mimi Feigelson (b. 1963)

First ordination by denomination	Regina Jonas (Reform, 1935) Sandy Sasso (Reconstructionist, 1974) Lynn Gottlieb (Renewal, 1981) Amy Eilberg (Conservative, 1985) Tamara Kolton (Humanistic, 1999) Sara Hurwitz (Orthodox, 2009)