Rebbetzin or Rabbanit is the title used for the wife of a rabbi—typically among Orthodox, Haredi, and Hasidic Jews—or for a female Torah scholar or teacher.
Overview
Rebbetzin or Rabbanit is the title used for the wife of a rabbi—typically among Orthodox, Haredi, and Hasidic Jews—or for a female Torah scholar or teacher.
Etymology
The Yiddish word has a trilingual etymology: Hebrew, rebbə ("master"); the Slavic feminine suffix, -itsa; and the Yiddish feminine suffix, -in.
A male or female rabbi may have a male spouse but, as women and openly gay men were prohibited from the rabbinate for most of Jewish history, there has historically been no specific term for the male spouse of a rabbi. In liberal denominations of Judaism, a rabbi married to another rabbi would be both a rabbi and a rebbetzin. In a 2020 piece, Rob Eshman, the national editor of The Forward and the husband of a female rabbi, wrote: "Nobody knew what to call me" because "there wasn't a word for what I was." Some contemporary male spouses of rabbis have chosen to call themselves "rebbetzers."
Community roles
In many Orthodox communities, rebbetzins have the role of spiritual counselors. In circles such as the Hasidic dynasty of Belz, the girls schools are run by the rebbetzin.
