We are running a Chanukah crowdfunder! The Azara summer programme will be the first ever coed yeshiva programme in Europe’s 2,000 year Jewish history. For one month, participants of all backgrounds will come together to immerse in Jewish texts and form a community of learners. We’ve already received a significant number of applications—now we just need the financial resources to make it happen.
This is an investment in our community. The learning wont stop at the end of the summer—we will empower participants to become lifelong Torah learners and teachers, however they imagine that role. The Azara summer programme is a gateway to a more informed Anglo-Jewry, connected to our own tradition.
We believe that Torah learning is transformative. By engaging with deep, nuanced Jewish texts and each other, we gain the skills to think deeply about moral problems. We become better equipped to navigate the critical issues facing our community today.
Azara has given me an opportunity I have only ever had in Jerusalem or New York. To study complex Jewish text, at a high level, in the original with excellent teachers, but, most importantly, with an unprecedented diversity of participants. We read, discuss and argue our way through traditional texts but with people who I have never had the privilege of studying together – Orthodox, progressive, liberal, ex-chareidi, LGBTQI+, across class and parts of the UK.
The relationships struck over text study deepen our connection to the broader British Jewish community, and our sense of what it is to be connected to, and responsible for, one another.
The biggest thing I have learnt is that the more diverse the cohort, the deeper the Torah insights.
– Azara participant
You can support the crowdfunder by clicking here. Proceeds will be used to fund teaching on the programme, and to make it as financially accessible to participants as possible. Thanks so much for supporting Azara!