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Abbreviation | JOFA |
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Founded | 1997 |
52-2106560 [1] | |
Legal status | 501(c)(3) [1] |
Purpose | To provide education services to the Orthodox community on women's issues. [2] |
Daphne Lazar Price [3] | |
Dr. Mindy Feldman Hecht [3] | |
Employees (2018) | 6 [4] |
Volunteers (2018) | 50 [2] |
Website | www |
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The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) is an Open Orthodox Jewish organization providing educational services on women's issues, with the aim of expanding "the spiritual, ritual, intellectual, and political opportunities for women within the framework of Halakha ." [5] It was incorporated on April 14, 1998, with Jewish-American writer Blu Greenberg as its first president. [6] It is active in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. [7] [8]
JOFA has published a number of Halakhic guides on topics related to women's involvement in Orthodox Jewish ritual, released an interactive app for learning the cantillations for reading Megillat Esther, and publishes the biannual JOFA Journal. [9] [10] [11] In November 2019, the organization announced an initiative to pay American Orthodox Jewish synagogues an annual grant of up to $10,000 to hire women as spiritual leaders. [12] Since 1997, JOFA has held international conferences to explore Halakhic and social issues. [13] [14]
JOFA advocates for increased opportunities for women as religious, spiritual and halakhic leaders, as professional and lay leaders, and as teachers of Talmud and Halakha. [15] JOFA supports Orthodox female clergy having the official title Rabbi. [16] JOFA supports women's reproductive rights, including abortion in consultation with their physicians and personal Halakhic advisers. [17] In 2019 JOFA released a statement calling for a solution to the Agunah issue in Israel. [17] The Australian branch of JOFA supports the training of Jewish women as experts in the ritual laws of Niddah through a scholarship program. [18]
JOFA was originally founded in the late 1990s as the first Orthodox feminist organization in the United States. The writer Blu Greenberg served as the organization's founding President. Greenberg was followed by Carol Kaufman Newman, Judy Heicklen, Bat Sheva Marcus, and Pam Scheininger. JOFA's stated mission was to strive to expand the religious and spiritual roles Jewish women within the parameters of Jewish ritual law. JOFA also sought to address specific issues related to Orthodox Jewish women in marriage and divorce proceedings. The founding event for the organization was the International Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy, held in 1997 in New York City. The organizers of the event were four Orthodox Jewish women from New York: Esther Farber (1935-2003), Bat Sheva Marcus, Ronnie Becher, and Blu Greenberg. Each of the organizers had personally engaged with matters arising from a growing tension between religious life and the feminist values of modern life. JOFA eventually absorbed many members of the Women's Tefillah Network (WTN), an loose Orthodox association of prayer groups founded in the 1980s with the support of some modern Orthodox rabbis. At the time of JOFA's founding, Women's Tefillah Network had more than 40 such member groups in North America, Israel, England, and Australia. Since the establishment of JOFA, however, WTN membership decreased as JOFA began fulfilling many of the network's roles. [19]
The UK branch of JOFA was founded by Rabba Dina Brawer, [20] who first encountered JOFA activities in Israel, [21] and later received her rabbinic ordination in 2018 from Maharat. [22] [23] [24] The inaugural conference for JOFA UK took place in 2013. [20] The group's early efforts involved campaigning against domestic violence. [25] The group's other activities include promoting prayer services led by women, [24] as well as supporting the role of Orthodox women rabbis. [26]
The Australian branch of JOFA was formally registered in 2020, [8] and launched in 2021. The inaugural president of the JOFA Australia is Nomi Kaltmann. [27] [28] The reception in Australia to the presence of JOFA has been very warm, with many international female orthodox guests given a platform to speak to an Australian audience for the first time, including Rabbanit Devorah Evron, [29] Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis [30] [31] and Yoetzet Halacha Michal Roness. [32] [33] In addition, JOFA Australia created the first ever scholarship fund for orthodox Australian women. [34] Its inaugural funding has been used to train 20 Australian women who are training to become qualified Kallah teachers via the Eden Center in Jerusalem with the programs offered through a virtual learning model. [35] In 2021, JOFA Australia announced the formation of the first women's speaker's bureau for Orthodox Jewish women in Australia. [36] The speakers bureau was launched in early 2022. [37]
In the fall of 2015, the Agudath Israel of America widely denounced moves to ordain women and declared entities affiliated with Open Orthodoxy, such as JOFA, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and Yeshivat Maharat, as not a form of Torah Judaism, similar to other dissident movements throughout Jewish history in having rejected basic tenets of Judaism. [38] [39] [40]
Women in Judaism have affected the course of Judaism over millenia. Their role is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law, by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature present various female role models, religious law treats women in specific ways. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women account for 52% of the worldwide Jewish population.
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law with the modern world.
Rosh Pina is a lay-led Modern Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue that meets in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
Tamar Ross is a professor of Jewish philosophy at Bar-Ilan University and a specialist of religious feminist philosophy.
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School (YCT) is a yeshiva self-identified as Modern Orthodox, previously self-described as Open Orthodox, founded in 1999 by Rabbi Avi Weiss.
Avraham Haim Yosef (Avi) haCohen Weiss is an American Open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who led the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in The Bronx, New York until 2015. He is the founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for men and Yeshivat Maharat for women, rabbinical seminaries that are tied to Open Orthodoxy, a breakaway movement that Weiss originated, which is to the left of Modern Orthodox Judaism and to the right of Conservative Judaism. He is co-founder of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, a rabbinical association that is a liberal alternative to the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, and founder of the grassroots organization Coalition for Jewish Concerns – Amcha.
Open Orthodox Judaism is a controversial Jewish religious movement with reduced emphasis on following halacha, increased emphasis on intellectual openness, and a more expansive role for women. The term was coined in 1997 by Avi Weiss, who views halacha as permitting more flexibility than the normal practices of Orthodox Judaism.
Haviva Ner-David is an Israeli feminist activist and Open Orthodox rabbi.
Women rabbis and Torah scholars are individual Jewish women who are recognized for their studies of the Jewish religious tradition and often combine their study with rabbinical ordination. Ordination of women has grown since the 1970s with over 1,200 Jewish women receiving formal ordination. The majority of these women are associated with Progressive Jewish denominations. In Orthodox Judaism, the matter of ordination is more complex. Although a significant number of Orthodox women have been ordained as rabbis, many major Orthodox Jewish communities and institutions do not accept the change. In an alternative approach, other Orthodox Jewish institutions train women for various Jewish religious leadership roles and may entail training in Jewish Law although no formal rabbinic ordination is granted. Instead, alternate titles are used. Yet, despite this alteration in title, these women are often perceived as equivalent to ordained rabbis.
Orthodox Jewish feminism is a movement in Orthodox Judaism which seeks to further the cause of a more egalitarian approach to Jewish practice within the bounds of Jewish Law. The major organizations of this movement is the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) in North America, and Women of the Wall (WOW) and its affiliates in Israel and internationally, known as The International Committee for Women of the Wall (ICWOW). In Israel, the leading Orthodox feminist organization is Kolech, founded by Dr. Chana Kehat. In Australia, there is one Orthodox partnership minyan, Shira Hadasha, in Melbourne.
Sara Hurwitz is an Orthodox Jewish spiritual leader aligned with the "Open Orthodox" faction of Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States. She is considered by some to be the first female Orthodox rabbi, and is one of the first female Orthodox rabbis to be appointed by a synagogue. She serves as Rabba at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, and the president and co-founder of Yeshivat Maharat, both in Riverdale, New York.
Rabbi Dov Linzer is the President and Rabbinic Head of the Open Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, New York. He is a teacher, lecturer, podcaster, and author.
Feminist Jewish ethics is an area of study in Jewish ethics and feminist philosophy.
Malke Bina is the founder and first teacher of Matan Women's Institute for Torah Studies. She has a master's degree in Hebrew Bible from Yeshiva University. She is married to a rabbi and is called by the term Rabbanit, which is less common in Modern Orthodox circles. Bina does not consider herself a rabbi and, at a 2004 conference of Orthodox Jewish Feminists, emphasized her focus on Talmud study. She was interviewed by JOFA in 2006 and serves on its Council of Advisers. She also pioneered women's reading of Megillat Esther on Purim.
Alissa Thomas-Newborn is an American Orthodox Jewish spiritual leader who became the first Orthodox female clergy member to preside in the Los Angeles, California area when she assumed her post as a spiritual leader at B’nai David-Judea Congregation (BDJ) in August 2015. The announcement of her appointment came on May 2, 2015 from the pulpit by the lead clergyman of the synagogue, Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky.
Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx, New York, which is the first Orthodox yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word Maharat is a Hebrew acronym for phrase manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit, denoting a female "leader of Jewish law spirituality and Torah". Semikha is awarded to graduates after a 3- or 4-year-long program composed of intensive studies of Jewish law, Talmud, Torah, Jewish thought, leadership training, and pastoral counseling. The ordination functions as a credentialed pathway for women in the Jewish community to serve as clergy members.
Lila Kagedan is a Canadian-born Jewish rabbi who in 2016 became the first woman with the title rabbi to be hired by an Open Orthodox synagogue. This occurred when Mount Freedom Jewish Center in New Jersey, which is open Modern Orthodox, hired Kagedan to join their "spiritual leadership team." She is currently the rabbi at Walnut Street Synagogue, an Open Orthodox synagogue in Massachusetts.
The International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF) is a controversial, Open Orthodox, rabbinical organization founded by Rabbis Avi Weiss and Marc D. Angel in 2007 and soon elected Rabbi Barry Gelman as its president. The group is open to graduates of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The group's current president is Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot. The group is noted for being the only Orthodox rabbinical association to admit women rabbis as members.
Dina Brawer is an Open Orthodox woman rabbi and the founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance division in the United Kingdom. Brawer received her rabbinical ordination at Yeshivat Maharat in the United States and is the first Orthodox woman rabbi to serve in the UK. Brawer's work at JOFA UK focuses on women's rights in Orthodox Judaism and the religious education of adult women in Orthodox communities in the UK.