Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a matched gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Life

Women’s Megillah Readings Go Global

Women’s megillah (Scroll of Esther) readings haven’t gotten quite as big as Achashverosh’s kingdom, but they are getting there.

The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) has published its annual directory and interactive map of women’s megillah readings happening around the world on Purim this year. The initiative is part of Project Esther, an annual JOFA program named for the heroine of the Purim story.

The directory includes readings in the United States, Canada, France, England, Australia, and Israel. The list provides information for each reading, including whether men are permitted at the readings as well as whether or not babysitting will be provided.

Project Esther also includes a number of articles on the basis for women’s megillah readings in Jewish law, as well as an app to learn how to read the text.

Contact Shira Hanau at [email protected]

It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!

This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions. 

We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.

As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday! 

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.