Scholarship opportunities available from the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia
JOFA Australia, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, seeks to expand the spiritual, ritual, intellectual and political opportunities for women within the framework of halakha (Jewish law), by advocating meaningful participation and equality for women in family life, synagogues, houses of learning and Jewish communal organisations to the full extent possible.
JOFA launch
“JOFA Australia aims to foster local community leadership and talent to ensure that orthodox women in Australia have access to quality teachers in the all-important time leading up to their weddings,” said JOFA Australia President Nomi Kaltmann. “In partnership with the Eden Centre in Jerusalem, JOFA Australia is excited to establish the first all-Australian cohort that will undergo Kallah teacher training via their exceptional training program.”
The Eden Centre, located in Jerusalem (https://theedencenter.com/) offers a rigorous training course that focuses on enabling all women to have a personally meaningful and welcoming experience in the mikveh. Topics covered during this course include Halacha, women’s health and intimacy issues, communication between partners and infertility.
JOFA Australia has funding to support 12 women from across Australia (any State or Territory) to undertake the 20-week Kallah training course. The course will take place live on Zoom for 3 hours one evening a week (exact time and date to be decided by the cohort), with the course set to begin after High Holidays, in October 2021.
While the course usually costs 2,200 shekels (approx. $1,100AUD), due to generous donors, JOFA Australia is able to offer $1,000 scholarships to successful applicants, leaving a remaining nominal contribution from all accepted Australians of $100.
Upon completion of the teacher training course, women will be qualified Kallah teachers by the Eden Centre in Jerusalem and will be able to offer Australian students a consistent framework for teaching the laws of Taharat HaMishpacha.
“Following our successful launch in May 2021 JOFA received extensive feedback that many women felt that the teaching in this area needed improvement and there was no designated qualification or framework that was consistent for Australian teachers,” said JOFA Australia vice president Sharona Jotkowitz.
“At our launch of JOFA Australia the feedback was that there was a significant lacking in young modern orthodox kallah teachers and the few that did exists were completely overbooked and burnt out,” said Jotkotwitz.
“Thanks to our generous donors, we are thrilled to be able to offer an important opportunity to train women in an area that we are certain will benefit all men and women getting married in this country,” she said.
If you would like to apply to submit an expression of interest form to receive a scholarship and undertake training to become a Kallah teacher, please fill in this google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSec0aFD4VNQOWkiJyqaDmez_OErFL-VUIzE8gipQjnEFKoOpA/viewform
