Cynthia Culpeper

Who is Cynthia Culpeper?

Cynthia Ann "Cyndie" Culpeper was the first pulpit rabbi to announce being diagnosed with AIDS, which she did in 1996 when she was rabbi of Agudath Israel in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the first full-time female rabbi and the first Conservative female rabbi in Alabama. Culpeper was working as a nurse in San Francisco General Hospital when she accidentally contracted HIV due to a needle stick, and was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. She had been ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary earlier that year, and had converted from Catholicism at age 21.

After revealing her diagnosis, her congregation rallied around her, insisting she continue to work, and wearing red AIDS awareness ribbons, but in 1997 she gave up her position and moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where she could get "cutting edge" treatment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's AIDS research clinic.

Culpeper spoke about AIDS to Jewish communities throughout America. She also became the first female rabbi to lead religious services in Poland, conducting High Holy Day services at Beit Warszawa in 2000. She died of AIDS in 2005.