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Noted Jewish feminist Paula Hyman died on Dec. 15. She was 65.

Paula Hyman

Hyman served as the first female dean of the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, from 1981 to 1986. She also was an associate professor of history at the Conservative seminary, and held the position of Lucy Moses professor of modern Jewish history at Yale University for 25 years.

Prior to that she was an assistant professor of history at Columbia University, where she received her doctorate in 1975.

Hyman published extensively on topics including Jewish gender issues, modern European and American Jewish history, and Jewish women’s history as well as feminism. She wrote several books on French Jewry.

Hyman was a founder in 1971 of Ezrat Nashim, a group of Conservative Jewish women who lobbied extensively for changes in the Conservative movement’s attitude toward women, including ordaining them as rabbis and inclusion in a minyan.

She won a National Jewish Book Award in 1999 and received honorary degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

Hyman regularly spent time in Israel, lecturing in Hebrew and English at the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. — jta