One of the leading Orthodox supporters of partnership minyanim is to participate in a public discussion on women and Jewish law organised by the Sephardi community in London.
Rabbi Daniel Sperber, the British-born president of the Institute of Advanced Torah Studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, has argued for the religious validity of services where women can read from the Torah and lead some of the prayers.
He will appear on a panel with Rabbi Dr Michael Rosensweig, a more conservative Orthodox voice, who is rosh yeshivah at the theological seminary of New York’s Yeshiva University; and Rabbanit Chana Henkin, founder of Nishmat, which offers advanced Torah studies for women in Israel. The Lauderdale Road Synagogue event is being staged by the Montefiore Endowment, which runs the UK’s only mainstream Orthodox semichah programme.
Rabbi Abraham Levy, a trustee of the endowment, believes it will be the first open discussion of its kind in a mainstream London Orthodox shul.
