(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)April 16, 2015

MAHWAH, NJ – Ramapo College’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies joined with the Pascack Valley Jewish Coalition to sponsor a screening of the recently released documentary Regina at the Bergen County YJCC on April 15. Approximately 180 people attended the showing of this poignant film depicting the life and tragic death of Regina Jonas (1902-1944), who made history by becoming the first properly ordained woman rabbi in the world.

Sally J. Priesand (shown at left with Roger Gross, Chair of the Pascack Valley Jewish Coalition), the first woman ordained as a rabbi in the United States, introduced and led a discussion of the film. She drew on the parallels with Regina Jonas in her own career and recounted the experiences that she shared with the three other “first” U.S. ordained female rabbis on their study mission to Berlin and Terezin that followed in the footsteps and honored the memory of their illustrious predecessor. British actress and Academy Award-winner Rachel Weisz provided the voice of Regina for the film.

Diana Groós’s poetic documentary tells the story of Regina Jonas, the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish peddler. She grew up in Berlin and studied at the liberal Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (College for the Scientific Study of Judaism) beginning in 1924 and was ordained in 1935. During the Nazi era and the war, her sermons and her unparalleled dedication brought encouragement to the persecuted German Jews. Regina Jonas was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. The only surviving photo of Jonas, showing a determined young woman gazing at the camera with self-confidence, serves as a leitmotif for the film.

In addition to illuminating the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the ordination of the world’s first female rabbi, Regina provides a mesmerizing glimpse of Jewish life in Weimar and Nazi Berlin.

When in 1972 Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) took the momentous step of ordaining her, Sally J. Priesand became the first female rabbi in American history. In addition to serving Reform congregations, Rabbi Priesand has been active within the larger Reform movement, serving on the executive boards of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Rabbinic Alumni Association and the Board of Governors of HUC-JIR. Rabbi Priesand retired from Monmouth Reform Temple after 25 years of service to that congregation.

The Pascack Valley Jewish Coalition, a sponsor of the event, is a newly formed alliance committed to strengthening and enhancing Jewish life in the region. Participants include Temple Beth Or (Township of Washington); Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley (Woodcliff Lake); Congregation B’nai Israel (Emerson); Temple Beth Sholom of Pascack Valley (Park Ridge); and the Bergen County YJCC (Township of Washington).

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