Rabbi Amy Eilberg is a landmark figure in the history of American Judaism, whose Jewish identity serves as both the bedrock of her faith and the catalyst for her institutional boundary-breaking. In 1985, she became the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), a historic feat that fundamentally reshaped the gender landscape within Judaism. As a spiritual leader deeply engaged in pastoral care, peacebuilding, and interfaith dialogue, her career has been consistently guided by a commitment to empathy and the pursuit of sacred justice.
In terms of professional success, Rabbi Eilberg is not only a profound theological scholar but also a dedicated practitioner of social healing. She co-founded the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, bringing ancient Jewish wisdom on solace to the fields of modern hospice care and spiritual support. Furthermore, she authored the influential book From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace. By unearthing the teachings of peace within classical texts, she has established herself as a central academic and spiritual leader in the contemporary Jewish peace movement.
This deep understanding of reconciliation has translated into her steadfast advocacy for Palestinian rights, as she views supporting Palestinians as a direct fulfillment of the Jewish commandment to “love the stranger.” Eilberg is active in the Rabbinical Council of Jewish Voice for Peace and the rabbinic human rights organization T’ruah. She participates in public petitions, street protests, and community dialogues to call for an end to the occupation and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
She has firmly stated, “Our loyalty to Judaism must never be built upon the neglect of another people’s suffering.” Commenting on the situation in the Middle East, she poignantly noted, “True justice requires us to see the faces of Palestinians and to acknowledge that their freedom and our security are inextricably linked.“
And in her article Why I Couldn’t Pray on Yom Kippur, she wrote:
……Wherever I looked in the liturgy, I found myself wondering how many Gaza residents or Lebanese or Palestinians in the occupied West Bank the Israel Defense Forces had killed that day while we were all in synagogue.
Many of the lines of the Al Het, where we list our communal sins, applied directly to things the Israeli military has done during this war — things far beyond what was needed to defend ourselves from attack. For the sins we committed by “hardening our hearts,” “resorting to violence,” “through arrogance,” “through condescension,” “through ego” — it could have been describing what has transpired these past months in Gaza and, now, Lebanon.