Inspiring women to shape communal understanding

In May 2025, JOFA Australia held its first ever Writers’ Retreat for Orthodox Jewish women. We brought together ten women from Melbourne and Perth for a weekend of Torah study, creative writing, and reflection. The focus was simple but important: helping women tell their personal stories, particularly around their health. Set in a gorgeous house overlooking the Yarra Valley the retreat was a perfect opportunity to spend Shabbat reflecting on how more orthodox women can get their voices into print.

On our retreat, we hosted workshops on how to shape an essay, how to find your story, and how to reflect Jewishly and personally at the same time. There were Torah learning sessions, a guest masterclass with award-winning author Elise Esther Hearst, and quiet time built in for writing and thinking. Most importantly, it was a space where Orthodox women could speak honestly, about their bodies, their experiences, their challenges, and their resilience.

A quick look around any Jewish bookshelf around the world will show that there are surprisingly few books written by women that talk about women’s experiences within the orthodox tradition. Each woman who came on the retreat brought her own voice, story, and insight. Some wrote about their relationship with their bodies. Others explored the physical and emotional demands of motherhood, fertility, or chronic illness. Across the board, what emerged was strong, thoughtful writing that mattered and that deserved to be heard.

In orthodox communities, we often speak about the value of women’s roles, but we don’t always give women the space or support to share their lived experiences. Health is still too often a topic discussed in whispers, especially when it intersects with the female body, mental wellbeing, or anything considered “private.” But women live these realities every day. We carry them quietly. And when we do speak up, our insights have the power to shape communal understanding, policy, and halachic thinking.

That’s why this retreat wasn’t just about writing. It was about recognising that women’s voices are essential to the health of our communities.

The majority of the women who came to the retreat are not professional writers. They’re teachers, mothers, professionals, students. But when given the space to write and reflect, their voices were confident, complex, and full of wisdom. They weren’t writing for approval. They were writing because their experiences matter.

The retreat was supported by JOFA, which focuses on advancing the inclusion of women as much as possible within the boundaries of Halacha (orthodox Jewish law). As part of the program, we focused on the health and wellbeing of Orthodox women in Australia, and every participant will produce a full-length personal essay on a topic related to health that will be assembled in an anthology. These pieces will form a new body of writing that centres Orthodox women’s perspectives on health in Australia, something we almost never see collected in one place.

For too long, Orthodox women have been expected to operate behind the scenes. We’re encouraged to be modest in what we say and how we say it. But modesty should never mean silence. Especially not when it comes to our own health and wellbeing.

When Orthodox women write about their bodies, their choices, their pain and their healing, they make it easier for others to do the same. They bring light to issues that are too often hidden. They remind us that Jewish life is lived not only in books and synagogues, but in doctors’ waiting rooms, hospital beds, therapy sessions, and kitchens filled with pill boxes and baby bottles.

And when these stories are written down, not just spoken quietly among friends, they become part of our collective memory. They help shape the future.

This retreat showed what’s possible when Orthodox women are given time, space, and encouragement to write from the heart. It showed that there is enormous value in making room for women’s experiences, not as an afterthought, but as central to the conversation.

We don’t need to wait for permission to tell our stories. But when we’re supported to do so, the results speak for themselves.

So I know that while this was the first retreat of its kind in Australia, it most certainly won’t be the last.

Nomi Kaltmann is president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) Australia.