JOFA to host the first orthodox women’s conference in Australia
The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance will host its first-ever in-person conference dedicated to discussing orthodox feminism and the state of women’s inclusion in Australia.
Daphne Lazar Price
The conference will be hosted by JOFA Australia’s partner the Ark Centre, in Melbourne’s Hawthorn East, and is sponsored by Launchpad Australia and the Besen Foundation.
“This is the first time that a conference of this nature has been held in Australia, and we are so pleased to be able to kickstart the conversations around the inclusion of orthodox women in all public spaces,” said JOFA Australia President Nomi Kaltmann.
The conference on Sunday, 13 August, will include 15 female speakers, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, is free to attend, but ticket bookings are required.
The Executive Director of JOFA in North America, Daphne Lazar Price, will be flying in to give a keynote address.
The conference will be open to both men and women, but all speakers are women.“When you gather people together with an aim of identifying problems, brainstorming solutions and creating an alliance that pushes for change, that’s where the magic happens,” said JOFA Australia President Nomi Kaltmann. “Similar JOFA conferences in the United States have had a long-lasting positive effect and change for women in their orthodox communities and we hope to replicate the same success here,” she said.
Panels hosted by JOFA Australia include discussions around trailblazing women who are creating change in Australia, ways to deal with conflict and discussion about the path towards the future and what it looks like for Australian women.
Since launching just over two years 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, 200 Australian women from six Australian States and Territories have received scholarships to complete training courses about Judaism and has been well-received by communities across Australia.
JOFA Australia, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, seeks to expand the spiritual, ritual and intellectual opportunities for women within the framework of halakha (Jewish law), by advocating meaningful participation for women in family life, synagogues, houses of learning and Jewish communal organisations to the fullest extent possible.
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