Chana Timoner
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi
| name = Chana Timoner
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| birth_name = Carol Ann Surasky
| birth_date = August 24, 1951Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2012
| birth_place = New Haven, Connecticut
| death_date = {{dda|1998|7|13|1952|8|24}}
| death_place = New Haven, Connecticut
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| spouse = {{marriage|Julian Timoner|1970}}Connecticut, Marriage Index, 1959-2012
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| occupation = Military chaplain
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Chana Timoner (née Carol Ann Surasky; August 24, 1951 – July 13, 1998) was the first female rabbi to hold an active duty assignment as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, which she began in 1993.{{cite web |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1998/07/18/chana-timoner/ |title=Chana Timoner |work=The Orlando Sentinel |date=July 18, 1998 |access-date=November 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019122953/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-07-18/news/9807180215_1_fort-bragg-chaplain-fort-benning |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/17/nyregion/chana-timoner-46-rabbi-and-chaplain-dies.html |title=Chana Timoner, 46, Rabbi and Chaplain, Dies |work=The New York Times |date=July 17, 1998 |accessdate=November 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226033954/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/17/nyregion/chana-timoner-46-rabbi-and-chaplain-dies.html |archive-date=February 26, 2014 |url-status=live }}
Early life and education
She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Abraham Surasky and Mary Rose Surasky (née Greenberg). Her paternal grandparents, Anna and Morris (Max), were Russian Jews who had immigrated in 1910.1930 United States Census Her mother had joined the Canadian Army to fight in World War II in 1940, a year before the United States entered the war, and in 1941 her mother transferred to the newly organized Women's Army Corps of the United States. Chana Timoner married at 18, and had two children by the time she graduated from college, yet was unhappy and restless as a homemaker and mother.
Rabbinical career
She began rabbinical studies in 1984 after a friend remarked one day, "you know, in 7 years you could be a 40-year-old housewife or you could be a 40-year-old rabbi." She became a Conservative Jewish rabbi, ordained in 1989.{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/07/18/armys-first-full-time-female-jewish-chaplain/ |title=Army's First Full-time Female Jewish Chaplain |work=Chicago Tribune |date=July 18, 1998 |access-date=November 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120917051215/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-07-18/news/9807180122_1_chaplain-epstein-barr-first-jewish-woman |archive-date=September 17, 2012 |url-status=live }} She joined the army in 1993, and on the very day that year that she began her first assignment, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, President Clinton announced the Don't ask, don't tell policy in the military.
See also
References
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{{Women rabbis}}
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Category:American Conservative rabbis
Category:Religious leaders from New Haven, Connecticut
Category:Conservative women rabbis
Category:Women in the United States Army
Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent