Queering the Rabbinate

A compilation of the life's work of a beloved activist rabbi and scholar.

As one of the first women to be ordained as a rabbi in the United States--and among the first rabbis to come out as a lesbian--Rebecca T. Alpert is one of the most influential progressive Jewish voices of her generation. A scholar, educator, and public intellectual, Alpert has foundationally shaped contemporary discourse on Israel/Palestine, gender and sexuality in Judaism, and race and sports. This reader compiles a range of Alpert's lesser-known, out-of-print, and unpublished works and sermons. It is organized into five sections that trace her queer approach to the rabbinate: her thinking on gender and sexuality, the ways she has served as a rabbi beyond the boundaries of organized Jewish life, her commitment to teaching, her experience as a Jewish baseball fan, and her longstanding support of the Palestinian freedom movement. Queering the Rabbinate makes these valuable resources available to a new generation of readers interested in progressive Jewish thought and practice.