NEW YORK — More than 350 women from four Jewish movements will gather in New York City (March 1) for an unprecedented dialogue on female spirituality in Judaism.
Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish participants in the sold-out event, called “This Is My Prayer – Va’ani
Tefillati: Jewish Women in Prayer,” will come from all the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The schedule includes a lecture on ritual baths by Anita Diamant, an author and president of Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh, and a performance by folk singer Debbie Friedman. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Aliza Lavie, author of last year’s “A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book,” which inspired the event.
The conference aims “to bring women from across the Jewish denominational spectrum together, something that does not happen frequently, to talk about a subject dear to all of us: the ways in which we feel a need to reach out to God in gratitude, pain, or even anger,” explained Dr. Anne Lerner, director and founder of the Jewish Women’s Studies Program of The Jewish Theological Seminary, one of the sponsors.
Other sponsors for the interdenominational dialogue include the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, Women of Reform Judaism, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and the Kolot Center for Jewish Women’s & Gender Studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Abraham Joshua Heschel School, Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, and Lilith magazine.
The conference schedule is available at www.jewishwomenprayer.org.
By Nicole Neroulias
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.