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Jan Caryl Kaufman

Ordained in 1979 from Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Jan Caryl Kaufman was among one of the first women admitted to the Rabbinical Assembly (professional organization of Conservative rabbis) in the first year it admitted women in 1985. She spent the first part of her career in Jewish education – the first two years at Hillel at the University of Maryland and then ten years on the faculty of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School of Greater Washington. In 1991, she became the founding principal of the Solomon Schechter High School at the Jewish Theological Seminary and then for almost two decades was the director of special projects at the Rabbinical Assembly.

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Joyce Jacobson Kaufman

A pioneer in the field of physical chemistry, Joyce Jacobson Kaufman did groundbreaking work in the fields of jet propulsion fuels used in the space program, psychotropic pharmacology, and drug design. Kaufman also discovered a novel strategy for using computers to predict drug reactions and the trajectory of a significant number of carcinogens.

Shulamith Reich Elster

Dr. Shulamith Reich Elster was known as the dean of Jewish education in America. She put Jewish day school education on the map during her ten-year tenure as Headmaster of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School of Greater Washington. She then joined the prestigious Council for Initiatives in Jewish Education and concluded her long career as executive director of Hillel of Greater Washington.

Hebrew Teachers Colleges in the United States

Jewish education in the United States was always the preserve of women on the “front lines” and in the classroom. In the early days of these programs, men “ran the show,” but beginning in the mid-twenteith century, women began to take on increasing roles as faculty members and administrators. In the early twenty-first century, women ascended to leadership positions in these institutions.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Jan Caryl Kaufman." (Viewed on March 29, 2024) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/kaufman-jan>.