The Kadima Women's Torah Project

Here's the latest update on the Women's Torah Project. Want to help out? Send donations to the Women's Torah Project.

Soferet - Hanna Klebansky ( http://www.womenstorah.com/hklebansky.html)was born in the former Soviet Union in the city of Tblisi, to a traditional Jewish family. She studied piano at the National Academy of Music, and in 1995, completed her studies and received an academic degree. Parallel to her studies, she was active in the local Jewish community. A graduate of the Machon Gold teaching certificate program, which operates in the diaspora, she taught in Jewish schools and Sunday schools. In 1996, Hanna immigrated to Israel. Her spiritual search brought her to the Masorti movement and, since 2000, she has been a rabbinical student at the Schechter Institute. She was ordained in 2006.

In 2002 Hanna Klebansky founded the Creative Beit Midrash "Zimrat You" to offer immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel cultural and Jewish pluralistic opportunities for learning and creative expression.

Hanna lives with Yigal and their five children in Jerusalem.

Soferet - Julie Seltzer (http://www.womenstorah.com/JulieSeltzer.html) Scribing is an art that fuses so much of who I am and what I love: Torah, Hebrew, art, ritual, meditation. There is also something so beautiful about the anonymity of it all (even as I write this bio, I know that ultimately my hand will merge with others’ and become an indistinguishable part of the whole).

I previously worked in theatre, Jewish education, and most recently as Baker at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. My more ephemeral, edible art—specially-shaped challot based on images from the weekly parsha — is another way that I engage with Torah and community life. I feel blessed and inspired to be joining the team of women on the Women’s Torah Project.

Soferet - Irma Penn (http://www.womenstorah.com/irmapenn.html)
Irma is a talented Canadian artist who trained in scribing in Jerusalem. Her love for Hebrew letters drove her to study the way of becoming a scribe, a promise and a dream that took her 40 years to fulfill, but she never lost focus.

After Irma retired as the archivist for the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, she knew that it was the right time to fulfill her long awaited goal of becoming a scribe. She learned all she could about the forms and laws of Hebrew letters, selecting feathers, cutting a quill, scoring parchment, selecting different parchment and selecting ink.

Irma is now scribing the panels of parchment for the Women's Torah Project full time. "It never dawned on me, till someone pointed it out to me, that I was one of the first women scribes in the world. I merely wanted to do what I loved, with meaning, expertise and knowledge." To her, becoming a soferet is a fulfilling commitment and is much more than merely doing calligraphy or another piece of art. "I am deeply honoured and blessed to be part of the Women's Torah Project. Sofrut is very special to me. It is a way of connecting with and reaching G-d." Irma is scribing this Torah in memory of her husband, Marvin Penn, Z' L. Irma also scribes megillot, mezuzah, tifillen and Torah.

Crown - Aimee Golant (www.womenstorah.com/aimee.html)
Copper, Silver, 22K Gold, Brown Diamond, 2009
Dimensions: 3 x 10 x 11"
Special Thanks To: Marsha Plafkin-Hurwitz owner of Art As Responsa

WOMEN'S TORAH PROJECT
TORAH CROWNS
Artist's Statement
CROWNING OUR PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

I have designed crowns to reflect the bold new direction taken by the Women's Torah Project, which opens the door for women to break the time-honored tradition that allows only men to scribe the Torah. These Torah adornments combine the best of tradition starting with the pomegranate, the sacred Shiv'at Ha-Minim mentioned in Exodus as the symbol of both righteousness
and fruitfulness, here shown in warm earth tone materials - copper, and a brown diamond, accented with silver and 22k gold. At the same time I have created a clean, purposeful and sculptural design which is intentionally contemporary and reflective of the dialogue evoked by the Project. In my own life, as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and full time metal artist, I have devoted my artistic career to making Judaica that will preserve, illuminate and share Jewish traditions while honoring women building pathways to new and exciting futuures.

Yad - Laurel Robinson ( www.womenstorah.com/laurel.html) Laurel hand-inscribed this lovely blessing on the wooden box she created to house the beautiful and sensual yad she crafted for the project. Marcia Falk is a poet, translator, and Judaic scholar. Her blessing for the yad is from The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival.

Let us restore the Shekhinah to her place in Israel and throughout the world, and let us infuse all places with her presence
-The Book of Blessings by Marcia Falk