Chana Timoner

Chana Timoner (née Carol Ann Surasky; August 24, 1951 – July 13, 1998) was the first female rabbi to hold an active duty assignment as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, which she began in 1993.

Early life and education

She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Abraham Surasky and Mary Rose Surasky (née Greenberg). Her paternal grandparents, Anna and Morris (Max), were Russian Jews who had immigrated in 1910. Her mother had joined the Canadian Army to fight in World War II in 1940, a year before the United States entered the war, and in 1941 her mother transferred to the newly organized Women's Army Corps of the United States. She joined the army in 1993, and on the very day that year that she began her first assignment, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, President Clinton announced the Don't ask, don't tell policy in the military.