Les­bian Rab­bis: The First Gen­er­a­tion doc­u­ments a mon­u­men­tal change in Jew­ish life as eigh­teen les­bian rab­bis reflect on their expe­ri­ences as trail­blaz­ers in Judais­m’s jour­ney into an increas­ing­ly mul­ti­cul­tur­al world. In frank and reveal­ing essays, the con­trib­u­tors dis­cuss their deci­sions to become rab­bis and describe their expe­ri­ences both at sem­i­nar­ies and in their rab­bini­cal posi­tions. They also reflect on the dilem­ma whether to con­ceal or reveal their sex­u­al iden­ti­ties to their con­gre­gants and supe­ri­ors, or to serve specif­i­cal­ly gay and les­bian con­gre­ga­tions. The con­trib­u­tors con­sid­er the ten­sions between les­bian iden­ti­ty and Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, and inquire whether there are par­tic­u­lar­ly ​“les­bian” read­ings of tra­di­tion­al texts. These essays also ask how the lan­guage of Jew­ish tra­di­tion touch­es the lives of les­bians and how les­bian­ism chal­lenges tra­di­tion­al notions of the Jew­ish family.