A unique programme in London is trying to make the Talmud more accessible to readers outside the yeshivah world.

The Open Talmud Project attracted some 40 students over a four-day summer course held this week at UJIA headquarters and the Moishe House.

“Both participants and teachers are from diverse backgrounds. We have people from Bnei Akiva to secular Jews,” said newly qualified Progressive rabbi, Benji Stanley. He is jointly organising this year’s programme with his fiancée Rabbi Leah Jordan, and Joseph Finlay, a composer who co-founded the project at the Moishe House in 2009.

While Rabbi Stanley has started work at the West London Reform Synagogue, Rabbi Jordan will be Liberal Judaism’s first full-time student chaplain. Teachers also include Masorti and Orthodox rabbis as well as university academics.