page_title: Firzogerin
hierarchical_section_title: Firzogerin
caption_attribution_description: English: A depiction of women in the synagogue's women's gallery on the fast day of Tisha b'Av commemorating the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem during the traditional reading of Lamentations (Megilat Eikhah). A firzogerin (precentress, prayer-leader) holds open a copy of the megilah in which she may be reading a translation in the women's vernacular language.
context_page_description: A firzogerin, 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 as a precentress, parallel to the main service led by a male chazzan.
  Gender-segregated seating within synagogues was common from the early Middle Ages well into the modern period. The firzogerin stood in the front of the women's gallery, balcony, or annex and translated the Hebrew prayers into the vernacular language for the other women who had come to pray. Sometimes the firzogerin translated more or less exactly; other times she translated freely and added her own interpretation. This parallel prayer system was probably welcome to women for whom the Hebrew liturgy, due to their lack of education, was largely incomprehensible. The firzogerin attained her status because she was more knowledgeable than most women, often acquiring her knowledge of Hebrew and the intricacies of rabbinic Judaism from her husband, father, or other learned relative. It was not unusual for this position to be held consecutively by several generations of women of a particular family.
context_section_description: A firzogerin,  (Yiddish: פירזאָגערן‎, lit. 'fore-sayer' or 'front-sayer'; Hebrew: הרבנית הדרשנית‎, romanized: ha-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. 
  Gender-segregated seating within synagogues was common from the early Middle Ages well into the modern period. The firzogerin stood in the front of the women's gallery, balcony, or annex and translated the Hebrew prayers into the vernacular language for the other women who had come to pray. Sometimes the firzogerin translated more or less exactly; other times she translated freely and added her own interpretation. This parallel prayer system was probably welcome to women for whom the Hebrew liturgy, due to their lack of education, was largely incomprehensible. The firzogerin attained her status because she was more knowledgeable than most women, often acquiring her knowledge of Hebrew and the intricacies of rabbinic Judaism from her husband, father, or other learned relative. It was not unusual for this position to be held consecutively by several generations of women of a particular family. Besides reciting prayers for and mentoring other female members of the community, firzogerin would sometimes write their own prayers (called tkhines) as well as poems. On rare occasions women precentors may have led a second prayer service apart from the one organized by men.
caption: A firzogerin reads from the Book of Lamentations (Megillat Eikhah) in the Women's Gallery on Tisha b'Av (from "Remembrance of the Destruction," Leopold Pilichowski, 1925)
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