British Orthodox Body Condems Shul For Allowing Women to Hold Torah
Britain’s umbrella body of Orthodox communities is condemning a London Orthodox synagogue that allows women to hold Torah scrolls.
Earlier this year, Golders Green United Synagogue began giving women an opportunity to handle the Torah scroll on Shabbat mornings and festivals, and the change has been well received by members of the community, according to the shul’s chairman, Benny Chain. The Torah is taken out of the ark by a man and handed to a woman, who takes it around the women’s section before returning it to the men.
Rabbi Ephraim Padwa, head of the rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, issued a statement condemning the practice as “Reform-influenced,” the Jewish Chronicle of London reported. Padwa said “breaches of this nature” came “from the influence of the Reform.”
The practice is uncommon but not unheard-of at Orthodox synagogues, and a growing number of American Orthodox shuls allow women to hold and dance with the Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah. “People have said what an emotional experience it is and that they feel much more involved in the service,” Chain said of his shul’s change.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
