History of Sorts

People are often surprised to learn I am not Jewish, and a few have even questioned my decision to write about the Holocaust as a non-Jew. While Jewish people were the primary targets and largest group of victims, Nazi persecution extended to millions of others as well. My connection to this history is personal: members of my family were murdered during World War II, and my stepfather served in the Pacific theater. This background offers me a distinct perspective on the global devastation of the war, including the Holocaust

As mentioned earlier, I am not Jewish and know little about Judaism. Therefore, I have no knowledge of how the hierarchy of Judaism works.

While Sally Priesand made history as the first woman ordained by a rabbinical seminary in 1972 at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati, Regina Jonas was actually the world’s first female rabbi. Jonas was ordained in Germany in 1935 and was tragically murdered in Auschwitz years before Priesand was even born.

Regina Jonas was born into a Jewish-Orthodox family in Berlin on August 3, 1902. She was the second child of Wolf Jonas and Sara Hess, and her father, Wolf, died when she was 13 years old. She grew up in poor conditions in the Scheunenviertel neighbourhood. She was enrolled at the Jewish School for Girls in the Orthodox synagogue on the Rykestrasse and excelled in all subjects related to Judaism—the Hebrew language and Jewish culture. Even then, she told other schoolmates she wanted to become a rabbi.

In 1924, she began her studies at the Berlin Academy for the Science of Judaism.

Although Regina would have preferred an orthodox school, the liberal college was the only one that considered training a woman to be a rabbi. Accordingly, she wrote her thesis on the subject: “May a Woman Hold Rabbinic Office?” It is a remarkable work, which shows her vast knowledge of Talmudic and Halachic subjects and texts and her total certainty and belief in herself. She wrote in conclusion, “Except for prejudice and unfamiliarity, there is almost nothing Halachically against the holding of the rabbinic office by a woman.”

Jonas graduated in 1930, and her diploma stated she was an Academic Teacher of Religion. Jonas then applied to Rabbi Leo Baeck, spiritual leader of German Jewry, who had taught her at the seminary. Baeck, while acknowledging Jonas as a “thinking and agile preacher,” refused to make the title official because the ordination of a female rabbi would have caused massive intra-Jewish communal problems with the Orthodox rabbinate in Germany.

However, becoming a rabbi did not guarantee Regina a place to preach. She had not been given a congregation of her own. She continued to teach, speak in the more liberal synagogues, visit the sick and the elderly in hospitals, and serve as a chaplain at the prison for women. When many of her male colleagues either emigrated or were arrested, she travelled to various communities across the country where Jews were left without religious leadership. Regina had dedicated herself to German Jewry, and when the Nazis rose to power, she could not think about fleeing the Jewish community she loved or exposing her elderly mother to the upheavals of exile. The Reich Association of Jews in Germany allowed Jonas to travel to Prussia to continue her preaching; however, the Jewish situation under the Nazi regime quickly degraded. Even if there had been a synagogue willing to host her, the duress of Nazi persecution made it impossible for Jonas to hold services at a proper house of worship. Despite this, she continued her rabbinical work by teaching and holding impromptu services.

In 1941 Jonas was drafted, like all Berlin Jews over 14, into factory work. Gad Beck, a survivor who worked with her, described her rabbinical work, “…Even in the factories, her synagogue was everywhere.” Despite the frequent suggestions that she should leave Germany, Jonas refused. In November 1942, the Nazis deported Jonas and her mother to Theresienstadt, where Jonas continued teaching, studying and preaching.

She was officially part of the Referat für Psychische Hygiene (Department of Mental Hygiene), led by Viktor Frankl.

On October 12, 1944, she and her mother were deported to Auschwitz and probably were killed that same day. The last writing from Regina Jonas at Theresienstadt before she was deported to Auschwitz was, “To be ‘blessed’ by God means to bestow blessings, goodness and loyalty—regardless of place or situation.”

What surprised me was that this feminist trailblazer was nearly forgotten. It was only decades after her murder that some historians started to look into her story.

Sources

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/regina-jonas/

https://www.lbi.org/de/collections/german-jewish-feminism-in-the-twentieth-century/

https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/regina-jonas.html

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina