Deborah Cohen

Dr. Deborah Cohen is the first woman to be certified as a mohelet (female circumciser) by the Reform Jewish movement.

Career Cohen was an obstetrician at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Los Angeles. A family doctor, Cohen had first turned to the Conservative and Orthodox movements to be trained as a mohelet, but was denied. In early fall of 1981, Cohen contacted the Hebrew Union College to ask for training, but the Reform movement had not yet trained any women to be mohalot. The Reform movement recognized that women could act as mohalot in 1984. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism), created the Brit Milah Board as the first circumcision training program offered by a liberal Jewish organization. She became the first woman to be trained as a mohelet by the Reform Jewish movement in 1984.