In reported first, woman given rabbinical appointment at UK Orthodox community
Miriam Lorie begins work as ‘rabbi in training’ at partnership minyan in Borehamwood, which allows women to read from the Torah and lead certain parts of service
In an apparent first, an Orthodox woman has been appointed to a rabbinic leadership role with a partnership minyan community in a town near London, according to a recent report.
Miriam Lorie, 35, has begun work as “rabbi in training” with Kehillat Nashira, in Borehamwood, England, The Jewish Chronicle reported Thursday.
Partnership minyans feature traditional Orthodox liturgy and mechitzah dividers separating the sexes, but allow women to read from the Torah and lead certain parts of the service.
“It doesn’t feel radical to me,” Lorie told the newspaper. “It feels like a very natural progression from work I was already doing in a community which welcomes it.”
Jonny Hart, a Kehillat Nashira member, told the JC that the community “has always aimed to be inclusive and inspiring and hiring a woman in a rabbinic role is a natural step for us. Understanding that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’, we believe that Miriam’s work will provide girls and boys, men and women with a crucial role model for community leadership, Torah learning and religious support.”
In her new role, Lorie will also spend one morning a week working for the community, which she hopes will become a day a week later in the year, according to the report.
“I’m qualified to do quite a lot of what a rabbi does, such as teaching” she said to the newspaper. “We’ve got a very strong pastoral course at yeshiva. I’m not trained in all the areas of halachah but I’m trained in quite a few already. I’ve got a good phonebook of rabbis to pass questions on to.”
The Chief Rabbi and United Synagogue of the United Kingdom neither recognize women rabbis nor accept partnership minyanim. But since Kehillat Nashira, one of half a dozen such minyanim in the UK, started in 2013, tensions have somewhat eased, the report said.
Partnership minyans have existed on the fringe of the Orthodox community for more than two decades, starting with Shira Hadasha, which was established in Jerusalem in 2002. Since then they have spread rapidly in the United States, including Kol Sasson in Skokie, Illinois; Minyan Tehillah in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Darkhei Noam in Manhattan and Rosh Pina in Washington. More than two dozen are listed on the website of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, though they don’t all meet every Shabbat.
None of the minyans are full-time congregations with daily services, and they operate without congregational rabbis and meet in rented space, usually in Conservative or Reform institutions. Though they draw mostly from the Orthodox community, they also have attracted Jews raised in the Conservative movement looking for more observant communities. The minyans generally avoid calling themselves Orthodox but say they operate within the letter of Jewish law — even if their services upend centuries of Orthodox tradition.
In partnership minyans, women may open the holy ark, lead the Kabbalat Shabbat hymns on Friday night and the early morning Pesukei D’zimra prayers, read from the Torah and get called to the Torah. But they may not lead the Shacharit or Musaf services — because that would violate Jewish legal precepts requiring prayer leaders to be obligated themselves in the recitation of those prayers (only men are obligated to recite the Shacharit and Musaf prayers at their appointed times, according to Orthodox law).
Because partnership minyans have mechitzah dividers, managing the egalitarianism can require some delicate choreography. The table where the Torah is read must be located in a neutral area accessible by both men and women. Depending on who takes the Torah out of the ark, it may be passed from one side of the room to the other on its way to the table. Some minyans have two lecterns for prayer leaders, one on each side of the mechitzah.
JTA contributed to this report.
