Rachel Isaacs

Isaacs earned her B.A. from Wellesley College in 2005, where she was the Hillel Co-president.^{[2] [3]} She transferred to the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) from the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in her third year of rabbinical school.^[4] Isaacs was mentored at JTS by Rabbi Carie Carter, who placed the tallit across Isaacs' shoulders at her ordination.^[4] Rabbi Carter was a closeted lesbian during her time at JTS, and wrote the originally-anonymous chapter "In Hiding" about lesbian Conservative rabbis in the 2001 book Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation.^[1] Rabbi Carter is now openly lesbian, and works at Brooklyn's Park Slope Jewish Center, which Rachel Isaacs interned at.^[1]

In 2011 Isaacs became the first openly lesbian rabbi ordained by JTS,^[1] and later that year she became the first openly gay rabbi to join the Rabbinical Assembly.^[5]

In 2014, Isaacs was named one of "America's Most Inspiring Rabbis" by the Jewish Daily Forward.^[6] In 2016, she delivered the evening Hanukkah benediction at the White House.^[7]

She is now the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Waterville, Maine, which is a Conservative synagogue,^[2][6] as well as the Dorothy "Bibby" Levine Alfond Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College.^[8] She is also the director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life, also at Colby.^[9]

• Timeline of women rabbis