London – Dina Brawer became Britain’s first Orthodox female rabbi.
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She received her semicha, or rabbinic ordination, on Monday in London from British-born Israeli academic and rabbi, Dr. Daniel Sperber, after he administered a two-hour exam.
Brawer, who was born in Milan to Moroccan-born parents, will take the title of “rabba.”
“I will describe myself as a rabbi, that’s what I’ve trained to do and that’s what I’m qualified to serve as,” she told Britain’s Jewish News.
She sat for her semicha, or ordination, test after completing a four-year program at Yeshivat Maharat in New York, according to the Jewish Chronicle. A graduation ceremony will be held in June at Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in Bronx, New York.
Yeshivat Maharat trains and ordains Orthodox women clergy members. Although a handful of Modern Orthodox synagogues in North America have hired its graduates, the New York school was one of the main targets of a decision issued last year by the Orthodox Union, an umbrella group for Modern Orthodoxy, barring its member synagogues from hiring female clergy.
Brawer served this year as a rabbinic intern at Netivot Shalom, in Teaneck, New Jersey. She is also the founder of the United Kingdom branch of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, or JOFA. She has been performing ritual and pastoral duties as a rabbinic student, and served as a scholar-in-residence at Hampstead Synagogue from 2015 to 2016.
“I wanted to be a role model to women and girls in the community, to show this is not something only possible as a man, but definitely possible as a woman and something women should aspire to,” she told the Jewish News. “Young girls should become anything they want. You can be well-educated, you can get a PhD in any topic, but when it comes to Jewish studies and religious studies, there’s a limitation. Well, there’s definitely no limitation.”
Brawer was raised in a Chabad community. She and her husband, Rabbi Naftali Brawer, the former rabbi of Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue outside of London, announced that they will be moving to the Boston area. She is currently completing a Hillel Office of Innovation Fellowship for Rabbinic Entrepreneurship, and her husband will start work as executive director of Tufts University Hillel.
She is not an Orthodox Rabbi!! Fake News. She is a Conservative or reform Rabbi
Who says Sperber is Orthodox?
chilil hashem that it connected to chabad…’u’vekehlosom al teichad kevody’
Jews for J call themselves Jewish; this neoconservative group call itself Open Orthodox and North Korea calls itself “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.
Female Orthodox Rabbi, A contradiction in terms.
Nu, c’mon Kiddush Hashem preachers, go for it
I’m waiting for Chabad to come out with a strong statement against this ( But I’m not holding my breath)
Daniel Sperber was born on November 4, 1940 in Gwrych Castle, Wales. He studied for rabbinical ordination at Yeshivat Kol Torah in Israel, earned a doctorate from University College, London in the departments of Ancient History and Hebrew Studies.[1]
He is married to Phyllis (Hannah) Magnus, a couples therapist, originally of Highland Park, Illinois. They have ten children.[1] One of their daughters, Abigail, is the founder of Bat Kol, a Jewish religious lesbian group.[2]
Academic and rabbinical career
He is the Milan Roven professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he is also the President of the Ludwig and Erica Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies.[3] He also serves as rabbi of Menachem Zion Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. In 2010, Rabbi Sperber accepted an appointment as honorary Chancellor of the Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School in Toronto.[4]
Sperber is the author of Minhagei Yisrael: Origins and History on the character and evolution of Jewish customs. He has written extensively on many issues on Jewish law can and how it evolved.This includes a call for a greater inclusion of women in certain ritual services, including ordination.
This ‘RAHbai’ Sperber gave a lecture about 6 years ago titled “Why Modern
Orthodoxy is True Orthodoxy”
That should tell you everything about his ‘smicha”
The ‘semicha document’ would be very good for אשר יצר paper…
Making a connection to Chabad is like saying Solomon Schechter, Chagall and others, which doesnt make it kosher. This is how reform got started, and that is dying out.
First they deny the Rebbe is death. Then they crown their death Rebbe moshiach. Then they no bow down to the Rebbe’s chair. Then they worshipped the death Rebbe fake Moshiach as if he is G-d. Now they come up with a fake rabbi as well. What a calamity had befallen chabad. The Rebbe would be turning in his grave if it wasn’t that he is DEATH. No wonder the Gaon of Vilna put the Chassidim in cherem. Now someone needs to do the same with all participants in this travesty.
Vin again uses a dividing and hateful headline when choosing to post an article..
None of my business. I wish her well.
As usual, the Taliban and religious holier than thou religious police on this site are at it again.
there’s no such thing as an orthodox woman rabbi neither is there any such thing as a non orthodox rabbi
What a world we live in . . .
Trump in the white house, Kim on an airplane? Rebetzen’s Fihr Tish, Berland doing infertility treatment, now this Rabba . . .
What’s next Chevra
Female = Rebetzin. No Rabbi in this gilgil.
She may keep all the mitzvos, but it is not Orthodox mesorah to have female rabbis, so I don’t consider her Orthodox. I am more likely to consider a woman who isn’t so tznius for instance, but keeps all the other mitzvos as Orthodox, than this woman even if she adheres to everything else. It just isn’t proper to have women rabbis.
She’s right nowadays young girls can become anything they want they can even grow up and become men
Love the narrow mindedness and the lack of knowledge. Glad I have a female Rabbi.
#18 , with a name like “Paul?” No, I am not a Jew. I am only here to learn about your culture. I am a Southern Baptist, I try to be very up-front about that as I do not want to mislead anyone.
To ber.
You are not just a hater, you are an am haretz too. The posuk says
ובקהלם אל תחד כבודי and not ובקהלתם.
But I have news for you, you and your ilk are not needed bikholom.
Now fyi, do you know how many talmidim from litvishe yeshivos became conservative rabbis? Futhermore, I have personally met with someone who says he joined jews for j and he is a former talmid of ner yisroel.
So you found one ex chabad reject, and decided to pile your hate on chabad. Shame on you.
I wont even bother with the other idiot who says bring back the cherem.
This Rebetzin dresses and acts like a Frumme, has Smiche and now she is not orthodox, Ivanka was not even born Jewish , traveling on Shabbos, dining in Non-kosher Restaurants and she is orthodox. I got it. So what do you guys think of Chelsie Clinton? Is she considerd Orthodox? She is not a Rabbi type at all
יהא שמה רבא
Lol
The headline is inflammatory…and misleading.
This woman is NOT CHABAD.
A trend in the Rabba circles is the need to legitimize themselves by attaching themselves to legitimate groups, names or causes.
When she was young, her parents send her to Chabad schools. She got married, moved to England. Her husband and her are MODERN Orthodox, and worked in MO syngagogues
She is NOT CHABAD.
The Rebbe is crying in his grave, I suspect. While there is no formal definition of an “Orthodox” Jew, there are orthodox practices. Making a woman a Rabbi is NOT an orthodox practice.
oh my….so much male insecurity in these comments!!! very few talmidei chachamim nowdays: the real talmid chacham does not feel threatened by a woman who has smicha because he knows she is an asset. And he also knows that the halacha allows it
To #21 -I am a Yid, who is on this site, to expose fanatics such as yourself!