UCL Institute for Women’s Health works with the Chief Rabbi

Professor Joyce Harper has been working with the Chief Rabbi's office to provide education for a new qualification for women.

Experts from UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health and University College Hospital will provide education on Women’s Health as part of an initiative from the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.  The new post of ‘ma’ayan’ will give women a formal qualification to serve in Orthodox synagogues as adult educators and advisors on Jewish Law in the area of family purity.

Ma’ayan is a new term meaning ‘spring’ or ‘fountain’.   Rabbi Mirvis would like these women to ‘enlighten the eyes of those around them’.  The 18 month, part-time course is the first of its kind in the UK.

Rabbi Mirvis said “There are large numbers of women in our communities who, for a variety of reasons, feel more comfortable asking a woman for advice and guidance on personal matters and related aspects of Jewish Law.  We have a responsibility to provide for them and this programme will help us a great deal in that regard.”  Rabbi Mirvis hopes to see a ma’ayan in every Jewish community. 

Dayan Shmuel Simons of the London Beth Din will lead sessions on Jewish Law, while experts from UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health and University College Hospital will deliver talks on women’s health including contraception, miscarriage, abortion, and infertility.

The programme starts on Tuesday 1st November and will continue through to November 2017.  The talks will take place at the Central Synagogue, Great Portland Street and the Finchley Synagogue.

_{Image: Chief Rabbi (image credit BBC).}