Rabbanit Surale Rosen is a graduate of Matan’s 5 year halacha programme and she founded their Women’s Online Halachic Responsa Project. For the past 2 years she’s led a new programme here at LSJS called Iyun, our highest level women’s learning programme, teaching women hilchot kashrut and now hilchot brachot. She’s really bringing opportunities to women in the UK that didn’t exist before, and it’s been a real privilege for me personally to have been able to connect our LSJS community to her. Surale’s also a certified Rabbinical Arbitrator, and she teaches Midrash, Talmud and Halacha. She’s invested in communal service on both local and national levels, and participates in the joint project of the UK Foreign Ministry and Search for Common Ground, in which leading Muslim and Jewish figures create a basis for religious dialogue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. We discuss access to Torah scholarship for women, and also what October 7 has meant for Surale’s ongoing relationships with Muslim leaders and the different, more fundamental questions she now feels she needs to ask. Visit lsjs.ac.uk to continue learning with Joanne Greenaway and other LSJS educators.

Elana Stein Hain and I talk about why finding legal loopholes in Jewish law isn’t cheating the system but rather completely in line with what Jewish law is designed for. She is Rosh Beit Midrash and Senior Research fellow at the Shalom Hartman institute of North America and author of a book on halachic loopholes entitled Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Loopholes and Legal Integrity. Passionate about bringing Rabbinic thought into the conversation with contemporary life, Elana hosts the TEXTing podcast where she brings to light issues relevant to Jewish life through classical and modern textual sources. She's also a regular contributor to the For Heaven’s Sake podcast, which recently became the most listened to Jewish podcast internationally. Visit lsjs.ac.uk to continue learning with Joanne Greenaway and other LSJS educators.

We're meeting Tal Bassali in this episode, a passionate, ambitious individual whose vision was to create something “so beautiful that it united people together but enabled them to remain individuals.” Enter the Zehud school, a Jewish online school teaching Hebrew and Judaic Studies to Jewish children. Living in Venice, Tal quickly realized that the type of Jewish education she wanted for her children wasn't available locally. In creating what she needed for her children, she's enabled hundreds of other Jewish children in far flung communities to join her community and receive a powerful, joyous Jewish education wherever they are in the world. In addition to education, Tal and I discuss the weight of our collective European memory, being a reluctant public speaker, and how to grow into your role - all in this episode of Women's Gallery. Visit lsjs.ac.uk to continue learning with Joanne Greenaway and other LSJS educators. You can access a women's high level learning course at LSJS at https://www.lsjs.ac.uk/courses-and-events.php?category=33

Let me introduce you to Keshet Starr. Keshet leads ORA, a non profit organisation addressing domestic abuse in the Jewish divorce process worldwide. She’s also a prolific writer, reader and Jewish educator as well as being a lawyer like me, and I had the privilege of working very closely with Keshet and getting to know her while I was managing get (Jewish divorce) cases at the London Beit Din, and I still turn to Keshet for advice. Keshet and I had a great chat about showing up as a female in a very male-dominated space, how to give control and autonomy to others, picking your battles, and sustainable female leadership - having it all (but not necessarily at the same time). Visit lsjs.ac.uk to continue learning with Joanne Greenaway and other LSJS educators.    

I think of Mijal Bitton as a spiritual entrepreneur - she's the Rosh Kehilla, spiritual leader, of the Downtown Minyan in New York City, where she's building vibrant traditional Jewish life. She's also a Torah teacher, a thought leader, and a sociologist with a current research focus on Sefardic Jews. Mijal has really pivoted her energies lately to leading at this time of need in the Jewish world, speaking at the huge Stand with Israel Washington rally, working in the interfaith world and dealing with antisemitism on campus. I have so much respect for her, and I can't wait to introduce you to her. Visit lsjs.ac.uk to continue learning with Joanne Greenaway and other LSJS educators. Link: Wandering Jews Podcast Link Downtown Minyan NYC   

This podcast is powered by LSJS - the London School of Jewish Studies. Connect with our Jewish education courses, tours and events, online and in person, via lsjs.ac.uk/connect. “I’ve seen the difference it makes when women’s voices and talents are included at all levels,” says Joanne Greenaway, CEO at the London School of Jewish Studies, who as well as being a communal leader and educator is also an international lawyer who spent 10 years developing expertise in resolving Jewish divorce cases individually and systemically. For this reason, Women’s Gallery Podcast will spotlight incredible female leaders making a mark in the Jewish community. Interviewing a different woman leader in each episode, Women’s Gallery will explore different models of leadership in the context of schools, shuls, universities, batei din and every place where we can find incredible female leaders, showcasing the women defining Jewish leadership today.