Julie Schwartz (rabbi)

Julie Schwartz is an American rabbi.[1] She was born in Cincinnati and, in 1986, she became the first woman to serve as an active-duty Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Navy, the very same year she was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.[2][3] She counseled patients at the naval hospital in Oakland, California, and after a three-year tour of duty she returned to Cincinnati and held assorted jobs at HUC-JIR.[2]

Eventually she became the third rabbi to be certified as a Clinical Pastoral Educator by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Educators, after which she founded HUC-JIR's course of study in pastoral counseling for rabbinical students.

In 1999, she became the first rabbi of B'nai Israel, the south side's first Jewish congregation in Fayette County, Georgia; they had previously been served by rabbinical students.[2]

In 2011, she returned to HUC-JIR to head the pastoral care and counseling program she founded.[4]

The art exhibit “Holy Sparks”, which opened in February 2022 at the Heller Museum and the Skirball Museum, featured 24 Jewish women artists, who had each created an artwork about a female rabbi who was a first in some way.[5][6][7] Emily Bowen Cohen created the artwork about Schwartz.[7]