Historical female religious role in Ashkenazi Jewish synagoogues
A firzogerin reads from Megillat Eicha in the Women's Gallery on Tisha B'Av (from "Remembrance of the Destruction," Leopold Pilichowski, 1925).
A firzogerin, (Yiddish: פירזאָגערן, lit. 'fore-sayer' or 'front-sayer'; Hebrew: רבנית הדרשנית, romanized: rabbanit ha-darshanit), alternately vorsangerin, foreleiner, zugerin, or zugerke, was a historic role in the synagogue for a learned Jewish woman leading women in prayer from the weibershul (women's gallery or annex) as a precentress, parallel to the main service led by a male chazzan.[1][2]
^Zinberg, Israel (1975). A History of Jewish Literature: Old Yiddish literature from its origins to the Haskalah period. KTAV. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0870684655. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
^Weissler, Chava (1988). Traditional Yiddish literature: a source for the study of women's religious lives (Jacob Pat Memorial Lecture). Harvard University Library.
precentors leading prayers in the vaybershul (women's gallery) were known as firzogerin, farzangerin, foreleiner, zogerin, or zogerke. A precentor is a member...
was called the weibershul. Historically, the weibershul was led by a Firzogerin, a learned woman who would translate the Hebrew liturgy of the main service...
or annex) of a synagogue took on the informal role of precentress or firzogerin for the women praying in parallel to the main service led in the men's...
to Brno. Fanny Neuda, like many learned Jewish women, likely served as firzogerin of the weibershul (women's gallery) in her husband's Loštice synagogue...
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