High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Regina Jonas (August 3, 1902 - December 12, 1944) was a Berlin-born rabbi. Historically, she was the first Jewish woman to be ordained as a Rabbi (though there had been some previous women, such as the Maiden of Ludmir and Asenath Barzani, who acted in similar roles). She became orphaned from her father when she was very young. Like many women at that time, she followed a career as a teacher but was not content. In Berlin, she enrolled at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Higher Institute for Jewish Studies - the Academy for the Science of Judaism, and took seminary courses for liberal rabbis and educators. There she graduated as an "Academic Teacher of Religion."