Our Stories Shared: One Little Phone Call

The tagline of Liberal Judaism in recent years has been ‘ A place for your Jewish story’, which I think is rather inspired. We have spent years talking about identity, the tension between intersectional parts of our lives, that may or may not fit together. The focus on our stories, rather than identity, is really helpful. For when we try to explain who we are, we inevitably tell our stories.

I identify as a Jew who looks at our tradition with progressive eyes, but my story says a lot more about who I am. I was brought up in an Orthodox community in Copenhagen, went to the Orthodox school, but my home life was progressive, we just didn’t know that there was a recognised way of living Judaism that was not framed by orthodoxy. At 15 my bat chayil speech (we did not do bat mitzvahs bur rather a Jewish version of the confirmation ceremony done in churches) was entitled ‘ The role of women in the synagogue’ and I outraged the then chief rabbi with my Jewish feminism and chutzpah. 

I did not dream of becoming a rabbi when I was young, I didn’t even know I could. My journey into the rabbinate began with a phone call, to ask if I was interested in teaching a group of children in a new community called ‘Progressive Jewish Forum’. It was that phone call that led to me discovering progressive Judaism (Liberal and Reform Judaism) and then eventually to Leo Baeck College on East End Road. It was a second phone call in my 3rd year of studying, coupled with living in Crouch End (a happy circumstance), which led me to the Chavurah.