Courtesy of Ente Studio, Maspeth, NY

Sally Priesand b. 1946

In 1972, Sally Priesand became the first female rabbi, receiving her ordination from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. She served the Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New Jersey for nearly 25 years and is now rabbi emerita. Priesand served on the board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, which established the Rabbi Sally J. Priesand Visiting Professorship in Jewish Women's Studies in 1997. A committed activist, she has organized an anti-gun campaign, established a local jobs bank and a Judaica lending library, instituted an annual "Mitzvah Day," and inspired the congregation's service to Habitat for Humanity. In 2009, she received the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, presented for service to humanity. She is the author of Judaism and the New Woman (1975).