Tanya Segal


Tanya Segal is the first full-time female rabbi in Poland and the first female rabbi in Czech Republic
Tanya Segal is also the professional theatrical director, actress, singer, and guitar player.
She was born in Russia in 1957, made Aliyah to Israel in 1990, and was ordained to a rabbi in 2007 at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. In 2006 her play And Her Name Was Heather was first performed, at the Hebrew Union College campus; it combines a commentary on the Book of Ruth with the story of American convert Tamar Havilio. She also studied at Tel Aviv University, where she produced the master's thesis From Zoharic Text to Liturgical Performance: The Role of Weeping in the Performance of Eikha. In her both theses diploms she created the theoretical basis of the Midrash Theatre which she established in Krakow at 2008, one year later after her rabbinic ordination. The Midrash Theatre performances in Poland became the innovative form of study she constantly used in her rabbinical teaching practice. Today the Midrash Theatre under Tanya Segal's directing is the known professional Jewish Theatre in Krakow opened for the while public.
In December 2007 she became the second rabbi of Beit Warszawa congregation in Warsaw. Since 2009 she has been a rabbi at Beit Krakow, a Progressive Jewish community of Krakow. Since August 2019 she is a rabbi of the Jewish Community of Ostrava