Alissa Thomas-Newborn

The Barrier-Breaking Female Orthodox Rabbi
Alissa Thomas-Newborn grew up watching a woman lead services in synagogue: Her own mother, Didi Thomas, is the spiritual leader at Temple Emet, a Reform congregation in Torrance, California.
Over the years, Thomas-Newborn became Orthodox — but found herself searching for a way to serve as a female religious leader in her new Orthodox community.
After graduating from Brandeis University, she studied at Yeshivat Maharat, in Rabbi Avi Weiss’s female rabbinical training program, and was certified as a chaplain herself. In 2015 she joined B’nai David-Judea Congregation, in Los Angeles, as the first Orthodox Jewish female clergy member in California.
There, Thomas-Newborn, 28, delivers sermons, provides pastoral care and officiates lifecycle events — but is not counted toward a minyan, nor does she lead services or read publicly from the Torah.
In the community, she is called “Rabbanit,” a title she is proud of.
“It is a word with a history that touches on the leadership that women have always played in Judaism that they have given spiritually and interpersonally,” she said.
Thomas-Newborn has attracted controversy merely by virtue of her position, as Orthodox groups like the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union have ruled unequivocally against female clergy members.
But she has remained unperturbed. “My response,” she said, “is to continue teaching Torah and inspire others to connect to our mitzvot, to each other and to HaShem.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The ADL reversed its support for Trump’s student deportations. You should too
-
Fast Forward Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block some weapons sales to Israel
-
Fast Forward Sotheby’s to auction earliest known kiddush cup
-
Opinion Trump’s new tariffs on Israel are a BDS dream come true
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.