Carole Meyers, 50; 1st female L.A. rabbi

From the L.A. Times:

Rabbi Carole Meyers, who became the first female rabbi to lead a congregation in the Los Angeles area when she took over Temple Sinai of Glendale in 1986, has died. She was 50.

Meyers died of bone cancer Thursday at her suburban Los Angeles home, 10 weeks after being diagnosed with the disease, said her husband, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky.

A vibrant preacher and insightful teacher who called herself a liberal activist, Meyers resigned in 2001 to devote more time to her husband and two children. But she remained a leader in the Jewish Reform movement, serving on the board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, developing curriculum for Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles and presiding at marriages and bar and bat mitzvahs.