Sara Hurwitz has blazed a trail in Judaism.

She’s thought to be the first female rabbi ordained by an institution in an Orthodox, or observant community.

Now she’s opening the door for more to follow.

“What I always ask for Orthodox women cannot be female rabbis is why?” Hurwitz, co-founder of Yesivat Maharat Rabba, said. “I feel honored and privileged to have the opportunity to step into this role.”

She calls herself a "rabba" — feminizing the word rabbi.

Among other branches of Judaism, it’s common to have women spiritual leaders. But among the community where Hurwitz was raised and lives, it’s rare — and, many say, impermissible.

“I care about Jewish law, I care about the Orthodox Jewish community,” Hurwitz said.

Graduating from Barnard College, she interned at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.

She said while she interned there, Rabbi Avi Weiss saw something in her, even as their faith community did not allow it.

“She was so multi-multi talented. Sara is brilliant. She had tremendous intellectual depth,” Avi Weiss, rabbi and co-founder of Yeshivat Maharat, said.

Weiss said Hurwitz perfectly encapsulates what has been missing in Orthodox Rabbinic leadership is compassion.

Her compassion sparked his action.

“We in the Orthodox community were only tapping into 50% of our population for spiritual Rabbinic leadership. Our people, like all people, desperately need rabbis like go out there an inspire influence and change the world,” Weiss said.

“Having Rabbi Weiss put his faith in me and recognized that fire in my belly that I had the tenacity and the grit to want to serve the Jewish community helped me along my path,” Hurwitz said.

Ordained in 2009, she’s now a spiritual leader of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. It calls itself open Orthodox.

Traditional Orthodox leaders have said ordaining women isn’t allowed under Jewish law.

“There was a lot of controversy. I got letters telling me that I wasn’t Orthodox or I wasn’t learned enough,” Hurwitz said. “It is my community and so I would never do anything that would break or destroy the community I care about.”

The Rabbinical Council of America has said, “Orthodox Institutions may not ordain women into the Orthodox Rabbinate.”

Columbia University Jewish Studies Professor Rebecca Kobrin says Hurwitz accomplished something untraditional because of the way she did it.

“There are actually two other women who previously claim that Orthodox rabbis have declared them to be rabbis but Sara Hurwtiz is definitely the first person at an institution to be ordained and be a Rabbinic leader,” Kobrin said.

Kobrin says female rabbis are far more common in reform and conservative Judaism. Orthodox women hold many positions of influence, but within religious life the denomination holds sacred more traditional roles for men and women.

“It is important just to understand the Orthodox community is very diverse and many people would not recognize her as a rabbi,” Kobrin said.

“Each year that passes there is more and more acceptance,”Hurwitz said.

Hurwitz is counting on it.

She and Weiss founded Yeshivat Maharat in 2009 that ordains women to become Orthodox rabbis.

So far, their school has ordained 65 women from many countries.

“I knew this is what I wanted to do more than anything else in the world,” Rabbinite Bracha Jaffe, a graduate of Maharat, said.

Bracha Jaffe was ordained six years ago through the school.

“She changed my life,” Jaffe said.

Hurwitz changed many lives. And in at least some places, she’s also changing the perception within the Jewish faith of what women can be.