The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Features thousands of biographic and thematic essays on Jewish women around the world. Learn more

David Ellenson

David Ellenson is Chancellor Emeritus and former President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is also Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and former Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Ellenson is the author of After Emancipation.

Articles by this author

Portrait of Meyera Oberndorf smiling wearing glasses and a black jacket against a neutral background

Meyera Oberndorf

Meyera Oberndorf blazed trails in Virginia politics as the first woman and first Jewish mayor of Virginia Beach, the largest city in the Commonwealth. From 1988 to 2008, she stood up to a long-ingrained good old boy network and led the city through difficult issues including racial unrest, all while staying closely connected to her citizens as “the people’s mayor.”

Naamah Kelman

Naamah Kelman

Rabbi Naamah Kelman was the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in Israel and the first woman to serve as Dean of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. She has had a distinguished career of more than four decades as an activist in feminist and social justice causes in the State of Israel.

Stern College Students March in Salute to Israel Parade, New York City, 2003.

Zionism in the United States

Jewish women constructed an approach to American Zionism that reflected their own unique position in American and Jewish society, employing the category of gender as a variable in the historical analysis of American Zionism. A complex interplay of gender, social class, and religio-ethnic culture shaped the ways in which women helped to direct the course of Zionism in America.
Rachel Adler

Rachel Adler

Rachel Adler is unquestionably among the leading constructive Jewish theologians, translators, and liturgists of the modern era. One of the first theologians and ethicists to integrate feminist perspectives and concerns into the interpretation of Jewish texts and the renewal of Jewish law and ethics, Adler is the award-winning author of Engendering Judaism.

How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "David Ellenson." (Viewed on August 13, 2021) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/ellenson-david>.

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