The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) is an Open Orthodox

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

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 ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

''." It was incorporated on April 14, 1998, with Jewish-American writer

Blu Greenberg Blu Greenberg (born January 21, 1936, in Seattle, with the name Bluma Genauer, later legally changing her first name to Blu) is an American writer specializing in modern Judaism and women's issues. Her most noted books are ''On Women and Judaism: A ...

as its first president.Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, Inc.
''Entity Information''. New York State Department of State, Division of Corporations. Retrieved April 25, 2020. It is active in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Activities and positions

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 The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Jewish ''Tanakh'' (the Hebrew Bible). It is one of the fi ...

, and publishes the biannual JOFA Journal. 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. Since 1997, JOFA has held international conferences to explore ''

Halakhic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comman ...

'' and social issues. 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. JOFA supports Orthodox female clergy having the official title Rabbi. JOFA supports women's reproductive rights, including abortion in consultation with their physicians and personal Halakhic advisers. In 2019 JOFA released a statement calling for a solution to the

Agunah An ''agunah'' ( he, עגונה, plural: agunot (); literally "anchored" or "chained") is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by ''halakha'' (Jewish law). The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey ...

issue in Israel. The Australian branch of JOFA supports the training of Jewish women as experts in the ritual laws of

Niddah Niddah (or nidah; he, נִדָּה), in traditional Judaism, describes a woman who has experienced a uterine discharge of blood (most commonly during menstruation), or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirem ...

through a scholarship program.

Branches

United States

JOFA was originally founded in the late 1990s as the first Orthodox feminist organization in the United States. The writer

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.

United Kingdom

The UK branch of JOFA was founded by Rabba

Dina Brawer Dina Brawer (born Dina Elmaleh) is an Orthodox woman rabbi and the founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance division in the United Kingdom (JOFA UK). Brawer received her rabbinical ordination at Yeshivat Maharat in the United States and ...

, who first encountered JOFA activities in Israel, and later received her rabbinic ordination in 2018 from

Yeshivat Maharat Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx, New York, which was the first Open Orthodox yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word ''Maharat'' () is a Hebrew acronym for phrase ''manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit' ...

. The inaugural conference for JOFA UK took place in 2013. The group's early efforts involved campaigning against domestic violence. The group's other activities include promoting prayer services led by women, as well as supporting the role of

Orthodox women rabbis Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Australia

The Australian branch of JOFA was formally registered in 2020, and launched in 2021. The inaugural president of the JOFA Australia is Nomi Kaltmann. 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, Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis and Yoetzet Halacha Michal Roness. In addition, JOFA Australia created the first ever scholarship fund for orthodox Australian women. 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. In 2021, JOFA Australia announced the formation of the first women's speaker's bureau for Orthodox Jewish women in Australia. The speakers bureau was launched in early 2022.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Jewish organizations established in 1997 Jewish religious organizations Jewish women's organizations Modern Orthodox Judaism Open Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Jewish feminism Women's religious organizations