1 min read
Hampstead Synagogue’s new scholar-in-residence ought to prompt more than passing interest.
Dina Brawer,who will teach at the US congregation over the coming year, is an experienced educator.
But her appointment might raise an eyebrow or two elsewhere among the US rabbinate.
As ambassador of the UK branch of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, she has been a leading voice for change.
She is also set to become the first woman from Britain to graduate from a new Orthodox women’s ordination programme in the USA, having enrolled as a student last year.
Yeshivat Maharat was started to train female spiritual leaders for modern Orthodox communities, whether they call themselves “rabba” – a term which sticks in the throat of America’s Orthodox rabbinic establishment – or use the new title of “maharat”.
Twenty years ago, the idea of training women for positions in Orthodox synagogues would have seemed impossibly radical and it is bold of Hampstead to engage someone linked with the new institution.
Its rabbi, Dr Michael Harris, of course, has long been the flagbearer for modern Orthodoxy within the United Synagogue – he has a book on the subject out next month – and he has sometimes been a lone soldier on its left flank.
How many United Synagogue communities will open the doors to maharats and will the Chief Rabbi give them his blessing?
We shall have to wait and see.