Abraham Joseph Rice (born Abraham Reiss) (c. 1800 – 1862) was the first ordained rabbi to serve in a rabbinical position in the United States. Rice was born in 1800 or 1802 at Gochsheim, near Schweinfurt, Lower Franconia. An injury in infancy left him with a limp. He studied at the Würzburg yeshivah, and was ordained by Rabbi Abraham Bing. He later continued his studies at the yeshivah of Rabbi in Fürth, and then headed a small yeshivah in the village of Zell, near Würzburg. In the 1830s he married Rosalie Leucht, and in 1840 they immigrated to the United States. After a brief attempt at reviving the Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island, he accepted an appointment as the first rabbi of Congregation Nidche Israel in Baltimore.