30 scholarships on offer to Jewish women by The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia
After successfully launching in Melbourne in May 2021, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia is offering its third scholarship program in 12 months dedicated to increasing the skills of women in the Orthodox Jewish community.
JOFA Australia president, Nomi Kaltmann, said: “We have partnered with the Op-Ed Project to offer a training course to Australian women to learn how to write an opinion editorial piece. We are thrilled that woman in the Australian Jewish community will be able to share their thoughts and opinions and receive training from a world-renown provider that will help them write persuasively.”
The OpEd Project’s mission is to change who writes history. They do this by accelerating the ideas and impact of underrepresented thinkers, including women of all backgrounds. Nearly 17,000 people – the vast majority of them underrepresented, and overwhelmingly women—have come through the Op-Ed Project’s doors. The women trained by the Op-Ed Project have produced tens of thousands of published ideas, op-eds reaching hundreds of millions of viewers, readers and listeners.
“This course has never ever previously been offered in Australia and we are thrilled that women from across the country will receive the opportunity to receive a scholarship to complete their training,” said Kaltmann.
She added: “JOFA Australia has an aim to foster local community leadership and talent to ensure that orthodox women in Australia have access to the highest quality training. I think Aussie women have amazing things to say and should be provided with opportunities to write their opinions and share their thoughts in public forums to increase their visibility in print.”
Since launching 12 months ago, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia has provided opportunities to Australian women that actively promote leadership and support women’s Torah learning, public speaking, teaching and engagement. To date, 31 Australian women have received scholarships to complete training courses to become Kallah teachers and courses that up-skill Mikveh attendants. JOFA Australia has also launched the first-ever orthodox women’s speaker bureau, with more than 70 Australian women from across the country listed on a publicly available bureau.
“We have 30 scholarships available to women from across the country to undertake the Op-Ed Writing program and judging by the high interest, JOFA Australia intend to continue to nurture and develop the talent in this community. We encourage anyone interested in participating to fill in the application” said Kaltmann