Ray Frank

[2] At the same time, Frank worked as a correspondent for several San Francisco and Oakland newspapers and was a frequent contributor to a number of national Jewish publications.

On September 14, 1890, Frank gave the Rosh Hashanah sermon for a community in Spokane, Washington, thus becoming the first woman to preach from a synagogue pulpit, although she was not a rabbi.

Despite the fact that Frank claimed to have no interest in becoming a rabbi, her actions forced American Jewry to consider the possibility of the ordination of women seriously for the first time.

In 1893, The Register-Guard, a newspaper based in Oregon, reported that "Miss Ray Frank, a highly educated young woman from Oakland, Cal., is about to study for the Jewish pulpit.

By occupying the pulpit temporarily, Frank opened the door, however slightly, for Jewish women's long journey towards public religious leadership.