Prof. Dr. Elisa Klapheck, Professor of Jewish Studies at Paderborn University, has been awarded the Marie Juchacz Women's Prize 2024 by the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The award honors her commitment to women's rights and equality between men and women. Minister President Malu Dreyer presented the award at a ceremony on International Women's Day.
"As a rabbi and chair of the General Rabbinical Conference of Germany, Elisa Klapheck plays a pioneering role. She is the first woman to head this important body since 2023. 'Off to new shores and new topics' is her motto, with which she is very committed to the emancipation of women in Judaism and the dialog between religion and politics," explains the Minister President. "On behalf of the entire university, I would like to congratulate our Professor Elisa Klapheck on this award. She succeeds in anchoring research findings in society and getting people talking to each other about the relationship between gender and religion, for example," said a delighted Prof. Dr. Birgitt Riegraf, President of Paderborn University.
Klapheck has been campaigning for a renewal of Jewish religious tradition for more than 30 years and was one of the co-founders of the liberal Oranienburger Straße synagogue in Berlin. Until 2009, she worked as a rabbi in Amsterdam (Beit Ha'Chidush congregation), then in Frankfurt am Main. The Paderborn professor focuses on topics in the context of today's socio-political issues and the examination of current economic-global challenges in the field of tension of Jewish economic and social ethics.
About the Marie Juchacz Women's Prize
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister's Women's Prize was awarded for the first time in 2019 to mark the centenary of women's suffrage. The name of the prize commemorates the achievements of Marie Juchacz, who was a pioneer in women's politics and was the first woman to give a speech in the Weimar National Assembly. The award winners are nominated by a jury of experts from the worlds of business, science, media and culture, as well as representatives from various bodies in the field of gender equality and women's policy, chaired by the Prime Minister.
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