Deborah Brin

Who is Deborah Brin?

Deborah Brin is the first openly gay rabbi in Judaism. She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1985. She is now the rabbi of Congregation Nahalat Shalom in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In addition to her education from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Brin earned a B.A.in Religious Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a Master's Degree in Pastoral Counseling from La Salle University in Philadelphia. She co-edited the poetry section for the Reconstructionist prayer book KOL HANESHAMAH: Shabbat Vehagim, and has written an article chronicling her experience leading the first women’s prayer service and Torah reading at the Western Wall for the book Women of the Wall, as well as "The Use of Rituals in Grieving for a Miscarriage or Stillbirth", for the book From Menarche to Menopause: The Female Body in Feminist Therapy.