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| | JWA Presents "This Week in History" |
 | | On December 12, 1950, Paula Ackerman became the interim "spiritual leader" of Temple Beth Israel in Meridian, Mississippi after her husband, who was the congregation's rabbi, passed away. |
 | | She steered Beth Israel for the next three years, leading weekly and holiday services, officiating at weddings, confirmations, and funerals, and participating in meetings of Mississippi rabbis. |
 | | Eventually, Beth Israel did find a man to serve as their rabbi, but in 1962 when the rabbi of Ackerman's childhood synagogue, in Pensacola, Florida, suddenly quit, she agreed to return to the rabbinical role to temporarily hold that congregation together as well. |
| www.jwa.org /this_week/week50.html (977 words) |
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