Mimi Feigelson

Mimi Feigelson
Mimi Feigelson
Born	7 March 1963; New York, U.S.
Education	Hebrew University (BA), (MA); Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (PhD);
Occupation(s)	Rabbi and educator
Website	schechter.edu/staff/rabbi-dr-reb-mimi-feigelson/

Mimi Feigelson is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, scholar, educator and spiritual leader.^[1]^[2]

Early life and education

Born in New York on March 7, 1963,^[3] she moved to Israel at age eight and began studying with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at age sixteen.^[1] In 1985 she completed a BA degree in history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[3] She says that in 1994, Carlebach granted her religious ordination (smicha), normally reserved for men.^[1]^[4]^[5]^[6] Her ordination as well as that of Eveline Goodman-Thau was revealed in 2000 in an article by the New York Jewish Week.^[7]^[8] Feigelson is also described as being ordained in 1996 by a panel of three rabbis after Carlebach's death.^[7]^[9]^[10] She earned a masters degree in Jewish philosophy at Hebrew University in 2000.^[3] Upon completion of her studies she had expertise not only in Torah but also Chasidic literature and thought with a desire to teach all who wanted to learn.^[1] In 2016 she earned her doctorate from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.^[3] Her doctoral dissertation explores Jewish funeral rituals and how individuals can reclaim their funerals as the final chapter of life, rather than the first chapter of death.^[11]

Rabbinic career

In 2001 she left her role as associate director and head of the women’s beit midrash at Yakar in Jerusalem, an Orthodox synagogue she helped found in 1992,^[3] and moved to Los Angeles to teach in the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at University of Judaism where she was the students’ mashpiah ruchanit, or spiritual guide.^[4]^[8] She taught at the school until 2017, when she moved back to Israel to take a similar position at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem.^[11] She uses the title "Reb" rather than "Rabbi"^[8] and is universally known as "Reb Mimi".^[11]

Feigelson was among the few Orthodox women rabbis to have received private ordination in the Orthodox Jewish context before the institutional change that resulted in the founding of Yeshivat Maharat.^[9] Other women in her position include Haviva Ner-David and Dina Najman (both ordained in 2006). In 2010 she was recognized as one of the fifty most influential female Rabbis in the U.S by The Forward.^[12]