Amy Eilberg was born on October 12,1954 and is the first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism.
16 Facts About Amy Eilberg
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Amy Eilberg was ordained in 1985 by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, one of the academic centers and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism.
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Amy Eilberg's father, Joshua Eilberg, represented Pennsylvania in the US House of Representatives, and her mother, Gladys, was a social worker.
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Amy Eilberg's parents were proud but not observant Jews, but when Eilberg was fourteen, her newfound commitment to traditional Jewish observance led her mother to make their home kitchen conform to the Jewish dietary laws kashrut.
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Amy Eilberg majored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and became an active member of Hillel International on campus.
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Amy Eilberg later enrolled in the Smith College School for Social Work and in 1984 received her masters of social work.
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Amy Eilberg was among the first group of women who immediately signed up for classes in the rabbinical school in the fall of 1984.
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On May 12,1985, at the age of thirty, Amy Eilberg became the first woman ordained in Conservative Judaism.
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Amy Eilberg started her career as a chaplain at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
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Amy Eilberg served for one year as the assistant rabbi at Har Zion Temple near Philadelphia.
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Amy Eilberg realized that her true passion was for caring for the ill.
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Amy Eilberg served as hospice chaplain for the Jewish Hospice Program in Philadelphia, then she helped found the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center in San Francisco where she directed the program's Jewish Hospice Care Program.
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Amy Eilberg appeared in a 2005 documentary, titled And the Gates Opened: Women in the Rabbinate, which features stories of and interviews with her, rabbi Sally Priesand, and rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.
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On December 6,2010, at Temple Reyim in Newton, MA, Amy Eilberg met for the first time with Sally Priesand, the first Reform female rabbi, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, the first Reconstructionist female rabbi, and Sara Hurwitz, considered by some to be the first Orthodox female rabbi.
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Amy Eilberg has one daughter, Penina, from her first marriage, and two stepsons, Etan and Jonah, from her second.
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Amy Eilberg lived in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, and was a regular member of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights.