The first North American Orthodox woman to use the title “rabbi” is to be one of the speakers at this month’s Limmud winter conference.
Rabbi Lila Kadegan, who graduated in summer from Yeshivat Maharat, an Orthodox women’s seminary in New York, will be teaching several classes at the event including one on inclusion and Jewish law.
The 1,000 sessions in the programme published today range from transgender issues in contemporary Jewish identity to making “Ashkenazi cocktails”.
Other guests from the United States include historian Deborah Lipstadt – whose famous court battle against Holocaust denier David Irving is the subject of a forthcoming film – and political scientist Zvi Gitelbaum.
Also appearing are Manny Waks, who helped to blow the whistle on child abuse in Jewish schools in Australia, and Tuvia Tenenbom, author of the best-selling book on his adventures in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Catch the Jew!.
Arts and entertainment acts range from Israeli hip-hop to Kat’shanes, who describe themselves as “Cockney-Yiddish Music Hall”.
For the first time the conference, which opens in three weeks, is being held in Birmingham.
