Paula Ackerman

Paula Ackerman (Hebrew: פאולה אקרמן; December 7, 1893 – January 12, 1989) is thought to have been the first woman to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leading the Beth Israel congregation in Meridian, Mississippi, from 1951 to 1953—making her the first woman to assume spiritual leadership of a mainstream American Jewish congregation—and the Temple Beth-El in Pensacola, Florida, briefly in the 1960s.

[2] She married Rabbi William Ackerman in 1919,[3] and the two of them lived in the same household in Pensacola with her parents and brothers per the 1920 United States census[4] In the mid-1930s, she served as the Mississippi president of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS),[5] a nationwide group for Jewish women affiliated with synagogues.

[1] The rabbinic functions undertaken by Ackerman that were publicly reported in the press include the offication of a wedding in Meridian in 1953[8] and a funeral in 1961.

If I can just plant a seed for the Jewish woman's larger participation—if perhaps it will open a way for women students to train for congregational leadership—then my life would have some meaning.

In 1986 the Union of American Hebrew Congregations held a ceremony at The Temple in Atlanta to recognize Ackerman's contribution to Jewish communal life.