Regina Jonas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial plaque for Regina Jonas, Berlin, Krausnickstraße. Cutout

Regina Jonas , actually Regine Jonas (born August 3, 1902 in Berlin ; died December 12, 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) was a German rabbi and the first woman in the world to be ordained a rabbi and to hold this religious office. From the 1930s to the 1940s she preached in several Berlin synagogues and worked there in captivity after her deportation to the Theresienstadt ghetto .

Her professional career brought Regina Jonas into a position that until then had only been reserved for men. This caused intense internal and public disputes in German Jewry in the 1930s, which, however, left only scant traces: until 1991, Rabbi Jonas was almost forgotten.

There are only a few texts by Regina Jonas herself. Her estate was discovered in an East German archive in the early 1990s by the Protestant theologian Katharina von Kellenbach, who lives in the USA, and made available as an edition and biography by the Jewish theologian Elisa Klapheck. In 2017, a letter from Regina Jonas to Martin Buber was found in the Israeli National Library in December 1938 , in which she expressed her wish to emigrate and asked him about the possibilities of working as a rabbi in Palestine.

Life

Youth and education

Regina Jonas was born as the daughter of businessman Wolff Jonas and his wife Sara, née Hess, on August 3, 1902 in Berlin's Scheunenviertel (Lothringer Strasse 59, today Torstrasse 102), in what was then a strongly Jewish residential area in what is now the Mitte district . Together with her brother Abraham, she grew up in materially modest circumstances, in a parental home that is described as "strictly religious". The father died in 1913.

She graduated from the public Oberlyzeum in Berlin-Weißensee ( today Primo-Levi-Gymnasium ) and in 1924 was qualified to teach higher schools for girls. Then she began studying at the liberal " University for the Science of Judaism " in Berlin. She was not the only woman at the university, but the only one with the declared aim of attaining ordination as a rabbi - a project that was unprecedented at the time. She financed her studies by teaching at various high schools. After twelve semesters, she passed her final oral exam on July 22, 1930. One of the examiners was Dr. Leo Baeck , at that time an authoritative representative of German Jewry, another her professor for Talmudic science, Eduard Baneth, to whom Jonas had previously submitted her written work. The title was provocative and programmatic at the same time: “Can the woman hold the rabbinical office?” Baneth rated the work as “good,” which suggests that he intended to give his pupil a diploma as a rabbi, what but prevented his sudden death in August 1930. Jonas' diploma from December 12, 1930 only shows her as an academically certified religion teacher.

Professional activities

Jonas gave a series of exercise sermons - whereupon Leo Baeck certified her to be a "thinking and agile preacher" - and gave religious instruction in public schools and in schools of the Jewish community. She gave lectures on religious and historical topics for various Jewish institutions, including questions about the importance of women in Judaism. She never lost sight of her actual career aspiration. The Offenbach rabbi Max Dienemann , managing director of the Liberal Rabbi Association , finally agreed in 1935 to test Jonas orally on behalf of the association and to ordain him after passing the test, although there were decided reservations among German Jews against such a step. The place of the examination as well as the ordination was Dienemann's apartment . In the diploma of December 27, 1935 Dienemann confirmed that she is "capable of answering questions about the Halacha [of the Jewish religious law] and that she is suitable to hold the rabbinical office". A few days later, Leo Baeck congratulated her as "Dear Fraulein colleague!"

The Jewish community in Berlin, she also dealt with thereafter only as a religion teacher, but she could also take on the "rabbis and pastoral care" in Jewish and urban social institutions. In the files of the congregation there are requests from congregation members to have the rabbi preach in the New Synagogue , but these were not considered. In the wedding hall in front of the actual synagogue room , Jonas was able to lead religious celebrations for young people and adults, wearing a gown and beret . The pulpits of the Berlin synagogues were still closed to her, and she was never commissioned with acts of religious law such as weddings. In contrast, they increasingly discovered the Jewish women's associations for themselves. Jonas spoke to the Zionist women's organization WIZO , the “Jewish Women's Association” or the sisterhoods of the lodges. In a note from the Jüdischer Gemeindeblatt about a “WIZO afternoon” with Regina Jonas it was said: “Fraulein Rabbi Regina Jonas considered - based on the Midrash - that there were already 70 peoples on earth before Israel - and now Israel as the new 71st people only in addition was and is determined by God to create and maintain religious culture - the possibility of attaining religion. - She emphasized the duty of women - just like the prophets, guardians and guardians of goodness, justice, love and consideration: 'Where women come, hatred and enmity must fall silent'. "After 1938 the number of Jews increased Communities that were without religious support because their rabbis had been forced to leave or deported by the National Socialist regime. On behalf of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany , Jonas traveled to such communities in the Prussian state association to preach and provide pastoral care. Jonas himself had apparently never thought of emigrating, probably also out of consideration for her mother.

On January 26, 1942, the personnel administration of Berlin's Jewish community asked Jonas to send him the certificates of her rabbinical training. She probably also needed to have her rabbinical diploma certified for this purpose. It is dated February 6, 1942 and bears the signature of Leo Baeck and the stamp of the "University for the Science of Judaism".

Shortly afterwards, Jonas was obliged to do forced labor in a cardboard box factory in Berlin-Lichtenberg and on November 6, 1942, he was deported to Theresienstadt with her mother . The Viennese doctor and analyst Viktor Frankl had set up a “department for mental hygiene” here, which was supposed to help newcomers get over the shock of their first impressions and thus improve their chances of survival. Jonas took part in this work and also gave lectures and sermons in Theresienstadt. 44 lecture titles of hers were found. On October 12, 1944, she was brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and probably murdered there immediately upon arrival.

Beliefs

Jonas saw himself as being on an equal footing with her male colleagues: "I came to my job from the religious feeling that God does not oppress people, that the man does not rule over women".

She saw herself connected to traditional Judaism from an early age. She pursued her career aspiration so stubbornly because she felt God had called her to it and because she could not find any contradiction in traditional Jewish laws. In her thesis at the university, she was the first to attempt to justify the female rabbinate not with liberal arguments, but with the tradition of Judaism. The question of her title: “Can a woman hold the rabbinical office?” She answered with the conclusion that “apart from prejudice and being unfamiliar there is almost nothing”.

Jonas was convinced "of the idea of ​​the ultimate and complete spiritual, emotional, moral equality of both sexes", but took the view that men and women could and should achieve something of equal value, according to their gender-specific strengths.

About her own job she wrote: “There are quite a few things that the man in the pulpit and otherwise with the youth cannot say, she [the rabbi] can say. The world consists of two sexes through God and cannot be promoted by just one sex in the long run ”. In her opinion, however, only unmarried women should work as rabbis, since this profession and the requirements of marriage and motherhood are incompatible.

In the 1930s, German Jews began to realize that their efforts at emancipation and integration had failed. At the same time, their religious roots and traditional cultural values ​​were often alien to them. In this difficult situation, which was soon to be life-threatening in the National Socialist state, Jonas tried to support a process of reconsideration and reconsideration.

In the Theresienstadt archive there is a list titled "Lectures by the only female rabbi: Regina Jonas", which Jonas left in the so-called "Department for Spiritual and Leisure Activities" in Theresienstadt before she was transported to Auschwitz, as well as the following key points from a sermon:

“Our Jewish people have been planted in history by God as a blessed one. To be 'blessed' by God means giving blessings, goodness and loyalty wherever you go in every situation. - Humility before God, selfless, devoted love for his creatures preserve the world. Establishing these cornerstones of the world was and is Israel's task - man and woman, woman and man, have assumed this duty with equal Jewish loyalty. This ideal also serves our serious, test-filled work in Theresienstadt to be servants of God, etc. as such we move from earthly into eternal spheres - May all our work be a blessing for Israel's future (and that of humanity). [...] Upright 'Jewish. Men 'and' brave noble women 'have always been the sustainers of our people. May we be found worthy before God to be included in the circle of these women and men [...] the reward, the thanks of a mitzvah, a great deed, is the moral great deed before God. Rabbi Regina Jonas - formerly Berlin. "

Appreciations

Memorial plaque for Regina Jonas, Berlin, Krausnickstraße 6

In the years after the war , Jonas was almost completely forgotten. As far as is known, none of the prominent survivors of Theresienstadt (e.g. Leo Baeck or Viktor Frankl, with whom she had worked), even mentioned her in their writings. When Sally Priesand, the first female rabbi in the USA, was ordained in 1972 , the press spoke of the "world's first female rabbi". Even in the Jewish community in Berlin in the early 1990s there did not seem to have been any vivid memories of Jonas.

The reasons for forgetting this ordination lie in the realm of the speculative. What is certain is that the rejection of female rabbis by large (initially liberal) sections of Judaism not only outlasted the Shoah / Holocaust , but also outlasted the successes of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Only research by the American scientist Katharina von Kellenbach after the fall of the Wall in East Berlin archives brought the story of the first female rabbi back to mind. In 1999 Elisa Klapheck published an annotated edition of Regina Jonas' halachic thesis "Can women hold the rabbinical office?" together with an extensively researched biography in which many contemporary witnesses describe their memories of Regina Jonas.

In the meantime, Regina Jonas is publicly remembered in two places:

  • Since June 2001 a memorial plaque installed by the Jewish women’s initiative "Bet Debora" on the house at Krausnickstrasse 6 in Berlin-Mitte has been commemorating her. Regina Jonas lived in the house that previously stood at this point until she was forced to move into a "Jewish house" in Berlin.
Road sign for the Regina-Jonas-Weg in Offenbach am Main
  • In Offenbach am Main , a path in Büsing Park was named after her on August 13, 2002 . The Regina-Jonas-Weg runs parallel to Kaiserstrasse and crosses the Max-Dienemann-Weg.

Movie

In 2013 the biographical film Regina by Diana Groó was released , in which Regina Jonas is played by Rachel Weisz .

Fonts

literature

  • Katharina von Kellenbach: Miss Rabbi Regina Jonas (1902–1945): teacher, pastor, preacher. Yearbook of the European Society of Women in Theological Research. Kok Pharos, Kampen 1994, pp. 97-102.
    • Elisa Klapheck (Ed.): Miss Rabbi Jonas . Can the woman hold the rabbinical office? (= Hermann Simon. Foundation “New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum” [Hrsg.]: Jewish Memoirs ). 2nd Edition. Hentrich and Hentrich, Teetz 2000, ISBN 978-3-933471-17-8 (325 pp., Pamphlet. Commented by Elisa Klapheck).
  • Katharina von Kellenbach: “God Does Not Oppress Any Human Being”: The Life and Thought of Rabbi Regina Jonas. In: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 39 (1994), pp. 213-225.
  • Elena Makarova, Sergei Makarov, Victor Kuperman: University Over The Abyss. The story behind 520 lecturers and 2,430 lectures in Theresienstadt concentration camp 1942–1944. Corrected and expanded second edition, April 2004, Verba Publishers Ltd. Jerusalem, ISBN 965-424-049-1 . Foreword: Yehuda Bauer
  • Elizabeth Sarah: The Discovery of Fraulein Rabbi Regina Jonas: Making Sense of Our Inheritance. In: European Judaism. 95: 2 (December 1995).
  • Elizabeth Sarah: Rabbi Regina Jonas, 1902–1944: Missing Link in a Broken Chain. In: Sybil Sheridan (Ed.): Hear Our Voice. University of South Carolina Press 1998, ISBN 1-57003-088-X , pp. 2-8.
  • Claudia Prestel: Confronting Old Structures: Regina Jonas, the First Female Rabbi. In: Judith Szapor, Andrea Petö, Maura Hametz, Marina Calloni (eds.): Jewish Intellectual Women In Central Europe 1860-2000. Twelve Biographical Essays. The Edwin Mellen Press 2012, ISBN 978-0-7734-2933-8 , pp. 375-410.
  • Elisa Klapheck : Regina Jonas . The world's first female rabbi (= Hermann Simon [Hrsg.]: Jewish miniatures . Volume 4 ). 2nd, revised edition. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin / Leipzig 2019, ISBN 978-3-95565-362-0 (64 pages).

Web links

Commons : Regina Jonas  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth register StA Berlin IX No. 1372/02 .
  2. ^ Elisa Klapheck: Regina Jonas 1902-1944 . In: Jewish Women's Archive . Brookline, 1998-2016.
  3. ^ Emily Leah Silverman: Edith Stein and Regina Jonas Religious Visionaries in the Time of Death Camps . Routledge. New York, 2014. SX ISBN 978-1844-65718-6 .
  4. ^ Elisa Klapheck (Ed.): Miss Rabbi Jonas . Can the woman hold the rabbinical office? (= Hermann Simon. Foundation “New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum” [Hrsg.]: Jewish Memoirs ). 2nd Edition. Hentrich and Hentrich, Teetz 2000, ISBN 978-3-933471-17-8 , pp. 51 (325 pp., Pamphlet. With further references).
  5. ↑ A Wizo afternoon . In: Jewish Community Gazette for Berlin. Berlin, June 26, 1938. Quoted from Klapheck, note 90, p. 94.
  6. ↑ Rachel Monika Herweg: Regina Jonas (1902–1944) . haGalil. Munich, 2010.
  7. ↑ Deborah Vietor-Engländer : Review of the book Elena Makarova, Sergei Makarov, Victor Kuperman University over the Abyss. The story behind 489 lecturers and 2,309 lectures in Theresienstadt concentration camp 1942–1944 . Literature House. Vienna, 2002.
  8. ^ Elisa Klapheck: Regina Jonas. In: Teetz 2000; P. 81f.
  9. ↑ Elisa Klapheck: My Journey toward Regina Jonas . P. 5f of the engl. Online edition (PDF; 644 kB)
  10. ↑ Memorial plaque for Regina Jonas . haGalil. Munich, 2012.
  11. ↑ Annette Becker: Light as a feather. Avitall Gerstetter, cantor and soprano, in concert . From: Frankfurter Rundschau, August 15, 2002, p. 29.
  12. ↑ Featuring Rachel Weisz as the voice of Regina Synops . Menemsha Films. Santa Monica, 2008-2016.
personal data
SURNAME Jonas, Regina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jonas, Regine (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi, the first in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1944
Place of death Auschwitz