“Azara Open Week has connected me back to Jewish learning. It has been so long since I’ve been able to—or wished to—engage with learning and I’ve had a big learning shaped hole in my life ! Azara Open Week has shown me that learning and tefilah is possible for me again. I’m definitely going to try and do more regular prayers and more learning. I can’t tell you how much hope this week has given me in my journey back to being in Jewish community. Honestly, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have made learning possible for me again. ”
– Azara Open Week Participant, summer 2023
What’s included?
Join us from Tuesday evening – Sunday morning at Sadeh Farm in Kent! Four full days of learning, starting in the morning with optional tefillah (prayer) followed by breakfast, three hours of discovering Talmud in the original with world-class teachers (classes at three levels, from complete beginners to experienced yeshivaniks), lunch, and your choice of afternoon classes. We’ll end with a Shabbat together to round off our learning and celebrate in community.
What do I need to know?
We’ll be in nature at Sadeh Farm, near Orpington and not too far from London. Everyone is welcome, and you’ll be joining a diverse group of week-long participants of all Jewish backgrounds from Liberal to Orthodox, young and old, straight and queer. All food is supervised kosher. The Open Week programme finishes after breakfast on Sunday 21 July.
Accommodation: Limited accommodation is available in group rooms or camping at Sadeh farm – book early to be sure of a place.
Accessibility: all spaces will be wheelchair accessible, and we will endeavour to meet other access needs wherever possible – more information available here. Contact us if you have a specific need to discuss and if you need wheelchair-friendly accommodation.
Schedule:
8.00 a.m. Participant-led Tefillah
Participants will organise different forms of prayer/meditation/reflection that are likely to include Orthodox, Masorti/trad-egal, and Progressive options.
8.45 a.m. Breakfast
Breakfast is provided, vegetarian, and certified kosher. Washing up is communal.
9.30 a.m. Talmud
This three-hour block every morning except Shabbat is an opportunity to dig deep into one of Judaism’s most central books. Learning will be done in small classes, with everybody studying on the same theme. Beginners will be learning how to start making meaning from the original Hebrew and Aramaic text, while more advanced students will be continuing their learning and building skills for reading Rashi, Tosafot, and other commentators.
12.30 p.m. Lunch
Lunch is provided, vegetarian, and kosher.
1.30 p.m. First afternoon class
3.00 p.m. Mincha and break
3.30 p.m Second afternoon class
Teachers
Rabbi Leah Jordan 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. This summer, Rabbi Leah will be teaching Talmud.
Yael Roberts is a Jewish educator and visual artist. Born in St. Louis Missouri, she lives in London where she works as Director of Community & Adult Educator at Westminster Synagogue. Over the years she has studied at Yeshiva University, the Pardes Kollel, Nishmat, Yakar, and the Conservative Yeshiva. When she was 20 she fell in love with reclaiming the radical nature of chassidut and making it accessible to everyone, and a decade later she hasn’t looked back. She sees her study and teaching of chassidut as a way of reclaiming her ancestral path, and although she believes the practices surrounding these texts have been lost, the ideas in these texts can change our embodied selves both in and out of Jewish space. Yael has taught at BIMA at Brandeis, the Nesiyah Institute, Oxford University with Yente Zine, JW3, Limmud, Alyth Synagogue, Reform Judaism, and Miknaf Haaretz, and once organised several Open Talmud Projects.
When she is not teaching, organising, or making art, she can be found baking vegan challah, on her bike, or reading poetry. This summer, Yael will be teaching Hasidut.
Rabbi Dr Judith Rosen-Berry received smicha from Rabbi Sheila Shulman in 2008, and went on to become the Rabbi of the Beit Klal Yisrael community, and to also teach Jewish theology at Leo Baeck College, London. Recently she was living on the Isle of Skye, but has now returned to Oxford to teach, write and produce samizdat pamphlets on radical Jewish theology.
This summer, Rabbi Judith will be teaching Modern Jewish Thought.
Rabba Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz received her doctorate from University College London. She has just finished two years as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester and has lectured at 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. This summer, Rabba Lindsey will be teaching Tanach.
More teachers to be announced soon!
Azara is committed to providing access to Torah regardless of financial circumstances. If the cost is a barrier, please get in touch to discuss.
