Ellen M. Umansky

Ellen M. Umansky serves as the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. The author of numerous essays, book chapters, and reviews on modern Jewish history and thought, and on women in Judaism, she is also the author of two books on Lily Montagu, founder of the Liberal Jewish movement in England; co-editor of Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality: A Source Book and From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews (2005).

Articles by this author

Lily Montagu

Lilian Helen Montagu was a British social worker, a magistrate in the London juvenile courts, suffragist, writer, religious organizer, and spiritual leader who founded and long remained the driving force behind the Liberal Jewish movement in England.

Tehilla Lichtenstein

Tehilla Lichtenstein co-founded the Society of Jewish Science with her husband as an alternative to Christian Science, creating a small but passionate following and carving a place for herself as a congregational leader.

Ray Frank

While her career was short-lived, Ray Frank remains significant as the first Jewish woman to preach from a pulpit in the United States. Her speeches often encouraged communal cooperation and tried to heal congregational disputes, and she notably gave an address at the first Jewish Women’s Congress in 1893.

Paula Ackerman

Paula Ackerman took over leadership of her husband’s synagogue after his death in 1950, when the congregation insisted on her appointment. For the next three years, Ackerman was the first woman to serve as religious leader of a mainstream American congregation, helping to pave the way for the ordination of women rabbis twenty years later.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Ellen M. Umansky." (Viewed on December 2, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/umansky-ellen>.