# Helene Ferris

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{{Short description|First second-career female rabbi in Judaism}}
right|thumb|Helene Ferris, May 2, 2010, officiating a wedding
'''Helene Ferris''' is the first second-career [female rabbi](/source/women_rabbis) in Judaism.<ref name="swfs">{{cite web|url=http://www.swfs.org/4-decades-women-rabbis/ |title=Stephen Wise Free Synagogue > 4 Decades of Women Rabbis In the Rabbinate and SWFS |publisher=Swfs.org |accessdate=2012-09-03 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525181437/http://www.swfs.org/4-decades-women-rabbis/ |archivedate=2012-05-25 }}</ref>

==Early Career and Rabbinic Education==
Helene Ferris began her career as a first grade teacher and was a stay at home mother before deciding to pursue the rabbinate in 1976 and attending [Hebrew Union College](/source/Hebrew_Union_College_%E2%80%93_Jewish_Institute_of_Religion) (HUC), which requires spending the first of 5 years in Israel. Her 3 children were 7-13 at the time.  They accompanied her to Israel, where they attended school, while her husband, Alan, stayed behind in New York.<ref name="Shaw-2008">{{Cite news |last=Shaw |first=Dan |date=2008-02-03 |title=He Got His Workshop, She Got Her Privacy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/realestate/03habi.html |access-date=2025-07-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=Winter 2006–2007 |title=Ordained |url=https://lilith.org/articles/ordained/ |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=Lilith Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Rabbinical career ==
Ferris was ordained by the Reform Jewish seminary [Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion](/source/Hebrew_Union_College-Jewish_Institute_of_Religion) in 1981, and worked as an associate rabbi in the [Stephen Wise Free Synagogue](/source/Stephen_Wise_Free_Synagogue) in New York from 1981 until 1991 when she felt she had reached the proverbial "[glass ceiling](/source/glass_ceiling)".<ref name="swfs" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Penny |date=2011-08-04 |title=In their 40s and 50s, embarking on second careers as rabbis {{!}} |url=http://jewishworldnews.org/2011/08/04/in-their-40s-and-50s-embarking-on-second-careers-as-rabbis/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415032825/http://jewishworldnews.org/2011/08/04/in-their-40s-and-50s-embarking-on-second-careers-as-rabbis/ |archive-date=2013-04-15 |accessdate=2012-09-03 |website=[The Jewish World](/source/The_Jewish_World) |publisher=}}</ref><ref name="Shaw-2008" /> From 1991 until her retirement in 2006, Ferris was the chief rabbi at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, a [Reform](/source/Reform_Judaism) synagogue in [Croton-on-Hudson](/source/Croton-on-Hudson), New York.<ref name="Shaw-2008" />

Among her most well-known activities, on December 1, 1988, Ferris helped prepare a prayer service and read from the [Torah](/source/Torah) at the [Western Wall](/source/Western_Wall), along with over 70 other Jewish women. This was the first time in history Jewish women prayed together and read from the Torah together at the Western Wall.<ref>{{cite web |title=About |url=http://womenofthewall.org.il/about/ |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001230745/http://womenofthewall.org.il/about/ |archivedate=2012-10-01 |accessdate=2012-09-03 |website=[Women of the Wall](/source/Women_of_the_Wall) |publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Chesler |first=Phyllis |author-link=Phyllis Chesler |title=The Walls Came Tumbling Down: How Jewish Feminists Made History :: The Phyllis Chesler Organization |url=http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/736/the-walls-came-tumbling-down-how-jewish-feminists |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729181218/http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/736/the-walls-came-tumbling-down-how-jewish-feminists |archivedate=2012-07-29 |accessdate=2012-09-03 |publisher=[Phyllis Chesler](/source/Phyllis_Chesler)}}</ref><ref name="shaaraytefilanyc">{{cite web|url=http://www.shaaraytefilanyc.org/article.aspx?id=19327352921 |title=Temple Shaaray Tefila - New York City |publisher=Shaaraytefilanyc.org |accessdate=2012-09-03 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107020803/http://www.shaaraytefilanyc.org/article.aspx?id=19327352921 |archivedate=2012-11-07 }}</ref> Ferris is a board member of the International Committee for [Women of the Wall](/source/Women_of_the_Wall) (ICWOW), which is a group working to give women the right to lead [public prayers](/source/minyan) at the Western Wall, which is now illegal.<ref name="shaaraytefilanyc" />

Ferris supports the inclusion of lesbian and gay Jews in religious life. In 1986, she organized a conference on lesbian and gay Jews in [New York City](/source/New_York_City).<ref name="tinw">{{Cite web |title=Temple Israel of Northern Westchester |url=https://www.tinw.org/ |access-date=2025-07-11 |website=www.tinw.org}}</ref> In 1989 she presided over a same-sex wedding ceremony for Ileen Kaufman and Jan Catalfumo; few rabbis would officiate such a ceremony in those days.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gilbert |first=Beth |date=1996 |title=Gays & Lesbians Under the Chupah |url=http://reformjudaismmag.net/696bg.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019094110/http://reformjudaismmag.net/696bg.html |archivedate=2011-10-19 |accessdate=2012-09-03 |website=Reform Judaism Magazine |publisher=}}</ref>

In 2007, [Letty Cottin Pogrebin](/source/Letty_Cottin_Pogrebin) chose her as one of "The Other Fifty Top Rabbis in America."<ref>{{cite web |date=2007-04-16 |title=Rabbis, Rabbis Everywhere! |url=http://www.lilith.org/blog/2007/04/rabbis-rabbis-everywhere/ |accessdate=2012-09-03 |website=[Lilith.org](/source/Lilith.org) |publisher=}}</ref> She has written for ''Reform Judaism'' magazine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ferris |first=Helene |date=2006 |title=Great-Grandfather's Blessings |url=http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1111 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222171516/http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1111 |archive-date=2010-12-22 |access-date=2025-07-09 |website=Reform Judaism Magazine}}</ref>

==See also==
*[Timeline of women rabbis](/source/Timeline_of_women_rabbis)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{official website|http://lifecyclerabbiny.com/}}
{{Women rabbis}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferris, Helene}}
Category:Living people
Category:American Reform rabbis
Category:Reform women rabbis
Category:People from Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:21st-century American rabbis

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Helene Ferris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Ferris) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Ferris?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.