Joan Friedman became the first woman to serve as a rabbi in Canada in 1980, when she was appointed as an Assistant Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.^[1] Her appointment was followed shortly after by that of Elyse Goldstein as Assistant Rabbi from 1983-1986; Goldstein has been called the first female rabbi in Canada, but that is incorrect.^[2][3]

Friedman was ordained in 1980 (before she began as an Assistant Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple) by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.^[4] Later she was named solo rabbi at B’nai Israel in Laconia, New Hampshire.^[5] She also worked as the Jewish chaplain at Colgate University for six years, as a congregational rabbi in Bloomington, Indiana for five years, and on the faculties of Colgate and American Universities.^[6] As of 2003, she was the associate chaplain for Jewish and interfaith life and coordinator of the Program in Ethical Reflection at Carleton College.^[6] As of 2016, she was Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies and Chair of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the College of Wooster.^[7]

She studied at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, and earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Jewish history from Columbia University.^[6] She received her Ph.D. in 2002, and her dissertation was entitled "Solomon B. Freehof, the ‘Reform Responsa,’ and the Shaping of American Reform Judaism."^[6]

Awards and professional memberships

• 2013-2014 Bernard and Audrey Rapoport Fellowship, Jacob Marcus Center, American Jewish Archives^[7]
• 2013 National Jewish Book Award Finalist, "Guidance, Not Governance": Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa^[7]
• Luce Award (College of Wooster, F 2009)^[7]
• Fellow, Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University (2001–02)^[7]
• Dissertation fellowship - Jewish Foundation for Education of Women Fellowship/National Foundation for Jewish Culture (2000–01)^[7]
• Bernard and Audrey Rapoport Fellowship, Jacob Marcus Center, American Jewish Archives (2000–01)^[7]
• IREX Research Exchange Scholar, Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1988–89)^[7]
• American Academy of Religion^[7]
• Association for Jewish Studies^[7]
• Midwest Jewish Studies Association^[7]
• Central Conference of American Rabbis, Board of Trustees, 2006–08; Responsa Committee, 1994–99; corresponding member 1999-current (as of 2016); Committee on Reform^[7]
• Women's Rabbinic Network, founding member; co-coordinator, 1991-3^[7]

Publications

• "Guidance, Not Governance": Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa, published by Hebrew Union College Press, 2013^[7]
• Assorted entries in Lindley, Susan Hill and Eleanor J. Stebner, eds., The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.^[7]
• "The Making of a Reform Rabbi: Solomon B. Freehof from Childhood to HUC," American Jewish Archives Journal, 58/1-2 (2006): 1-49.^[7]
• "The Writing of Reform Jewish Practice and Its Rabbinic Background," Central Conference of American Rabbis Journal, 51/3 (Summer 2004): 31-71.^[7]
• "A Critique of Solomon B. Freehof's Concept of Minhag and Reform Jewish Practice." In Re-examining Progressive Halakhah, Studies in Progressive Halakhah, ed. Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer, 111-133. NY: Berghahn Books, 2002.^[7]
• "A Judaism of Ongoing Search." In Jewish Spiritual Journeys: Essays in Honor of Eugene B. Borowitz on his 70th Birthday, ed. Lawrence A. Hoffman and Arnold Jacob Wolf. NY: Behrman House, 1997.^[7]
• "The Last Jews of Czechoslovakia?" Soviet Jewish Affairs 19/1 (May, 1989).^[7]
• Viewer's Guide for PBS series "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews," 1983 (Co-author).^[7]