JOFA scholarship winners begin Eden Centre course
Twenty scholarships have been awarded to women in Sydney and Melbourne who want to become qualified kallah teachers.
The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia (JOFA) has recently provided 20 scholarships to Australian women from Sydney and Melbourne who wanted to become qualified kallah teachers, via a 20-week world-renowned course offered on Zoom by the Eden Centre in Jerusalem.
This is the first time an all-Australian cohort has undertaken kallah training via the Eden Centre that focuses on enabling all women to have a personally meaningful and welcoming experience in the mikvah.
A strong theme which emerged from the JOFA Australia launch in May 2021 was that many Orthodox women in Australia felt that they lack the skills or training to take on leadership positions or get involved in conversations around Jewish law.
Many women at our launch were concerned that at key critical life-cycle moments, such as birth, bar and bat mitzvah, marriage and death, women did not have the requisite halachic knowledge to be adequately involved, with multiple attendees highlighting the specific difficulty finding relatable kallah teachers in Australia.
In response, JOFA Australia decided to address these concerns by actively recruiting Australian women interested in undergoing training via a scholarship program.
“Originally we were unsure if we would get the minimum numbers to run an all-Australian cohort, but we were heartened that we had generous donors who wanted to fund the course for the benefit of all Australian women,” said JOFA Australia vice-president Sharona Jotkowitz.
“As soon as we opened up recruitment for this program, the interest was immense, with many applicants from diverse backgrounds applying from more than 12 synagogues across Melbourne and Sydney.”
Despite the rigorous nature of the course, which includes 60 contact hours, tests and an exam, the new cohort of Australian kallah teachers are excited about contributing to the community.
“It’s great to be able to access this course via Zoom and learn with a local group of talented and thoughtful women,” said Melbourne participant, Tamar Adler. “It is important that Jewish women become empowered by the knowledge and experience of these laws that have been the foundation of Jewish family life for centuries before us, in a positive, open-minded framework relevant to our daily lives in 2021.”
Sydney based participant Gila Weiner added: “I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside passionate women about a topic as important as successful relationships. That JOFA and our community value this training from an incredible organisation such as the Eden Centre is not something I take for granted!”
Nomi Kaltmann is president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia.
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