Osnat and Her Dove: The Story of the World's First Female Rabbi

The Jewish Book Council recommends the book, Osnat and Her Dove, by Sigal Samuel.

In six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Mosul (in today’s Iraq), there lived a Jew­ish girl who longed to be a Torah schol­ar. Fac­ing dis­cour­ag­ing obsta­cles, but gift­ed and per­sis­tent, she would not sur­ren­der her dreams to a life of enclosed domes­tic­i­ty. That girl was Osnat Barzani (1590−1670), and a new pic­ture book writ­ten by Sigal Samuel and illus­trat­ed by Vali Mintzi relates the true sto­ry of the extra­or­di­nary woman’s life.

Educators can use this book to teach about the history of female rabbis and the challenges they faced.