About Us
Azara is creating a culture of Jewish learning in the UK.
We want to open the complex world of Torah to everyone, and build the skills to unlock our texts and traditions. Azara was born from two grassroots cross-communal learning projects, Pop-Up Beit Midrash and Open Talmud Project.
Our Story
Open Talmud Project was founded in 2009 in order to give all Jews close encounters with Talmud and other Jewish texts, and has run successful intensives for the last twelve years. Pop-Up Beit Midrash has provided living-room learning led by the best teachers from across the community. Together, we’re ready to create learning opportunities at every level, from evening classes to long-term, immersive programmes.
‘Azara’ is the Hebrew word for courtyard. The Temple had an azara in which all the Jews could gather, regardless of gender or priestly status. We aim to be a space where Jews of all denominations, backgrounds, and genders can gather to learn and to make religious meaning.
Leah is Rabbi of Kehillah North London and a founding member of Na’amod: British Jews Against Occupation. Having learnt at Yeshivat Hadar, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and the Conservative Yeshiva, Leah received semicha from the Leo Baeck College and holds an MA in Jewish Studies from King’s College London. She hails from “deepest, darkest” midwestern America, and lives in London with her partner, also a confirmed yeshiva bucher, Benji Stanley. (She/They)
Rabbi Leah Jordan
Co-founder
Jessica is a Masorti rabbinical student from Edinburgh, currently studying at Hebrew College, Boston. She studied mathematics at the University of Oxford and formerly worked in interfaith, running Jewish education and social action programmes. Jessica has been organising grassroots Torah learning since 2018 through Open Talmud Project and elsewhere. She has learnt at Yeshivat Hadar, the Drisha Kollel, and the Conservative Yeshiva.
Jessica Spencer
Co-founder
Rabba Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz received her doctorate from University College London. She is a former Research Fellow at the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, and has lectured at several universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, and Vassar College, New York. She has taught at the London School of Jewish Studies since 2005. In 2021 she received Orthodox rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, New York. Her first book, Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women, was published by the Littman LIbrary of Jewish Civilization in 2021.
Rabba Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
Co-founder
Allan is a practising Chartered Accountant and was a founder member of Edgware Masorti Synagogue. He taught at and co-chaired Gesher, the Masorti Teenage Centre, and studied at the Masorti Kollel. He graduated from Leo Baeck College in 2009.
Allan Myers
Trustee
Chana grew up in North West London and now serves as a youth director at the Cheadle and Gatley-based Yeshurun synagogue. She has a Chemistry degree from the University of Leeds and previously worked for Bnei Akiva UK. She spent a year studying at Midreshet Harova and is currently a participant in Yeshivat Maharat and YCT’s Mind the Gap learning programme.
Chana Be’eri
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