Rabbi Sally J. Priesand, America's first female rabbi, was ordained in June, 1972, by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to the Bachelor of Hebrew Letters and the Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Cincinnati. In 1973, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Florida International University, and in 1997, an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from HUC-JIR. Upon ordination, Rabbi Priesand accepted a position at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City where she served for seven years, first as Assistant Rabbi and then as Associate Rabbi. From 1979-1981, she was Rabbi of Temple Beth El in Elizabeth, New Jersey and also served as Chaplain at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital. From 1981-2006, she served as Rabbi of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. In 2006, she became Rabbi Emerita.
Rabbi Priesand's commitment to all things Jewish, to the cause of justice and peace, to equal opportunity for women, to the needs of the hungry and the homeless, and to the survival of Israel is reflected in her many organizational affiliations. She is a member of Jewish Women International, Hadassah, the National Organization for Women and the National Breast Cancer Coalition. She was a Founding Member of ARZA (Association of Reform Zionists of America) and has served on the Executive Board of both the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism. She also served as a member of the Board of Governors of HUC-JIR and as President of the Rabbinic Alumni Association. She is an Honorary Vice President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County and President of Interfaith Neighbors, an organization whose primary purpose is to provide rental assistance and support services for those who are homeless. She also chairs the Religious Affairs Committee of Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey and serves on the Board of the Center for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Community College.
Rabbi Priesand is the author of Judaism And The New Woman and a contributor to Women Rabbis: Exploration And Celebration as well as A Treasury Of Favorite Sermons By Leading American Rabbis. She is featured in numerous books including Rabbis: The Many Faces Of Judaism and Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed The World. She is the recipient of many awards and honors. The most recent include being given, in 1991, the Woman of Leadership Award by the Monmouth Council of Girl Scouts. In 1992, the women rabbis of the Reform Movement honored her pioneering efforts by contributing to the BeYad Chazaka Endowment Fund of the CCAR. In 1993, she received the Woman Who Dares Award from the National Council of Jewish Women in celebration of its centennial. In 1997, her colleagues bestowed upon her Honorary Membership in the Central Conference of American Rabbis. That same year, the Women's Rabbinic Network initiated a fundraising campaign for the establishment of the Rabbi Sally J. Priesand Visiting Professorship of Jewish Women's Studies at HUC-JIR. She also received a Distinguished Alumnae Award from the Alumni Association of the University of Cincinnati and its Friends of Women's Studies, and in 2002, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of her high school in Fairview Park, Ohio. Most recently, she was one of twenty women honored by the Jewish Women's Archive and the UJC National Women's Philanthropy in conjunction with the exhibit FROM HAVEN TO HOME at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
In addition, Rabbi Rabbi Priesand, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, is single and currently resides in Eatontown, New Jersey. Her hobbies include playing with her Boston terrier, Shadow, and dabbling in abstract watercolor. She exhibits annually in the Monmouth Festival of the Arts and in the spring of 2002, in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of her ordination, she had her first solo exhibition in the Backman Gallery at HUC-JIR in New York.
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