Regina Jonas was born in 1902 in a very poor Jewish neighbourhood in Berlin known as the Scheunenquarter. She became in 1935 the very first woman ever to become a rabbi, and was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1942.
During her brief but spectacular life she both embodied and inspired a new kind of progressive female participation in the Jewish religion, fighting for many years to be recognized and ordained as a willing and able proponent and leader of her faith. Gradually overcoming formidable resistance and obstacles from conventional orthodox Jewish institutions, she wrote a definitive thesis (included in this book) on why women could indeed become rabbis. Her argument was not based on political or social theory, but instead based upon sound liturgical scripture from the Old Testament and other precedents in Jewish talmudic law, commentary, and practice. Against all odds she was ordained in 1935 right after the devastating attacks of the Nazis on the infamous crylstalnacht, and consequently spent the remaining years of her life as a rabbi in ministering to the brutally abused and terrified German Jewish community.
