Nelly Shulman is the first female rabbi from Russia and was the first female rabbi in Belarus, having served as the chief reform rabbi of Minsk, Belarus. This makes her the first Russian-born woman to be a rabbi in the former Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and received her rabbinical ordination at the Leo Baeck College

Leo Baeck College

Leo Baeck College is a rabbinical college and centre for Jewish education located in north London. As well as being the smallest academic college in England, it is also the largest Jewish Progressive University and Rabbinic College in Europe....

 in London in 1999. She was a rabbi in Belarus for five years, the first female rabbi to serve there. She later returned to Russia and worked as a rabbi in Moscow. She also became a founding member and rabbi for the World Union for Progressive Judaism

World Union for Progressive Judaism

The World Union for Progressive Judaism describes itself as the "international umbrella organization for the Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist movements." This overall Jewish religious movement is based in about 40 countries with more than 1,000 affiliated synagogues...

 in Russia. In 2006 she officiated at what is believed to be Russia's first Jewish same-sex commitment ceremony, which led to Russia's largest Jewish group, Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia

Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia

Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia — Russian religious organization, unifying communities of «orthodox» Judaism, mostly of Chabad Hasidic movement...

, asking the Jewish Russian community to boycott Reform Jews.