Mimi Feigelson
Mimi Feigelson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 March 1963 New York, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupations | Rabbi and educator |
| Website | schechter |
Mimi Feigelson is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, scholar, educator and spiritual leader.[1][2]
Early life and education
[edit | edit source]Born in New York on March 7, 1963,[3] she moved to Israel at age eight and began studying with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at age sixteen.[1] In 1985 she completed a BA degree in history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[3] She says that in 1994, Carlebach granted her religious ordination (smicha), normally reserved for men.[1][4][5][6] Her ordination as well as that of Eveline Goodman-Thau was revealed in 2000 in an article by the New York Jewish Week.[7][8] Feigelson is also described as being ordained in 1996 by a panel of three rabbis after Carlebach's death.[7][9][10] She earned a masters degree in Jewish philosophy at Hebrew University in 2000.[3] Upon completion of her studies she had expertise not only in Torah but also Chasidic literature and thought with a desire to teach all who wanted to learn.[1] In 2016 she earned her doctorate from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.[3] Her doctoral dissertation explores Jewish funeral rituals and how individuals can reclaim their funerals as the final chapter of life, rather than the first chapter of death.[11]
Rabbinic career
[edit | edit source]In 2001 she left her role as associate director and head of the women’s beit midrash at Yakar in Jerusalem, an Orthodox synagogue she helped found in 1992,[3] and moved to Los Angeles to teach in the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at University of Judaism where she was the students’ mashpiah ruchanit, or spiritual guide.[4][8] She taught at the school until 2017, when she moved back to Israel to take a similar position at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem.[11] She uses the title "Reb" rather than "Rabbi"[8] and is universally known as "Reb Mimi".[11]
Feigelson was among the few Orthodox women rabbis to have received private ordination in the Orthodox Jewish context before the institutional change that resulted in the founding of Yeshivat Maharat.[9] Other women in her position include Haviva Ner-David and Dina Najman (both ordained in 2006). In 2010 she was recognized as one of the fifty most influential female Rabbis in the U.S by The Forward.[12]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c d Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Horwitz, D. (2020). American Conservative Judaism and Kabbalah. In Kabbalah in America (pp. 254–265). Brill.
- ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Sperber, D. (2010). On women in rabbinic leadership positions. Me'orot, 8, 2.
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Israel-Cohen, Y. (2012). Chapter Five: Orthodox Women Rabbis?“It’s Only a Matter of Time”. In Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism (pp. 69-78). Brill.
- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Living people
- 1963 births
- American Jewish University faculty
- American Orthodox Jews
- Orthodox women rabbis
- 20th-century American rabbis
- 21st-century American rabbis
- 20th-century American women
- 21st-century American women
- Religious leaders from New York (state)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
- Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion alumni
- American expatriates in Israel