Chana Timoner

Julian Timoner

(m. 1970)

^[2]OccupationMilitary chaplain

Chana Timoner (née Carol Ann Surasky; August 24, 1951 – July 13, 1998) was the first female rabbi to hold an active duty assignment as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, which she began in 1993.^[3]^[4]

Early life and education

She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Abraham Surasky and Mary Rose Surasky (née Greenberg). Her paternal grandparents, Anna and Morris (Max), were Russian Jews who had immigrated in 1910.^[5] Her mother had joined the Canadian Army to fight in World War II in 1940, a year before the United States entered the war, and in 1941 her mother transferred to the newly organized Women's Army Corps of the United States.^[4] Chana Timoner married at 18, and had two children by the time she graduated from college, yet was unhappy and restless as a homemaker and mother.^[4]

Rabbinical career

She began rabbinical studies in 1984 after a friend remarked one day, "you know, in 7 years you could be a 40-year-old housewife or you could be a 40-year-old rabbi."^[4] She became a Conservative Jewish rabbi, ordained in 1989.^[4]^[6] She joined the army in 1993, and on the very day that year that she began her first assignment, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, President Clinton announced the Don't ask, don't tell policy in the military.^[4]

References

^ Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2012
^ Connecticut, Marriage Index, 1959-2012
^ "Chana Timoner". The Orlando Sentinel. July 18, 1998. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Chana Timoner, 46, Rabbi and Chaplain, Dies". The New York Times. July 17, 1998. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
^ 1930 United States Census
^ "Army's First Full-time Female Jewish Chaplain". Chicago Tribune. July 18, 1998. Archived from the original on September 17, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2011.

Women rabbis and Torah scholars

Timeline of women rabbis

Pre-modern
figures

Bible and Talmud	Deborah (1107–1067 BCE) Bruriah (2nd century)
Medieval and early modern era	Rashi's daughters (11th–12th century) Bat ha-Levi (12th century) Paula Dei Mansi (13th century) Miriam Shapira-Luria (14th century) Fioretta of Modena (1522–1580) Bayla Falk (16th century) Eva Bacharach (1580–1651) Asenath Barzani (1590–1670) Frehat Bat Avraham (d. 1756) Maiden of Ludmir (1805–1888)

Modern figures

Ray Frank (1861–1948)
Lily Montagu (1873–1963)
Regina Jonas (1902–1944)
Tehilla Lichtenstein (1893–1973)
Paula Ackerman (1893–1989)
Martha Neumark (1904–1981)
Avis Clamitz (1908-1991)
Helen Levinthal (1910–1989)
Sally Priesand (b. 1946)
Mimi Feigelson (b. 1963)

First ordination by denomination	Regina Jonas (Reform, 1935) Sandy Sasso (Reconstructionist, 1974) Lynn Gottlieb (Renewal, 1981) Amy Eilberg (Conservative, 1985) Tamara Kolton (Humanistic, 1999) Sara Hurwitz (Orthodox, 2009)