Published: 12 March 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
MIRIAM CAMERINI IS the first Italian woman to enrol in an Orthodox rabbinical studies program in Israel.
She revealed it earlier this winter in an article she wrote for JOI magazine, an independent Jewish publication. The comments ensued: But, contrary to expectations, they were overwhelmingly positive. On social media, fellow Jewish Italian women congratulated Camerini.
Someone wrote: “It reminds me of a beautiful movie with Barbra Streisand…”, referring to Yentl, the fictional character of a short story written by Isaac Bashevis Singer who pretended to be a man so that she could study in a yeshiva.
Unlike Yentl, Camerini won’t have to cut her hair short or wear a yarmulke. At Beit Midrash Har’el, Jerusalem’s first Orthodox yeshiva that ordains both male and female rabbis, she can freely pursue the rabbinical curriculum guided by a faculty of renowned scholars, such as Rabbi Herzl Hefter and Rabbi Daniel Sperber.
“It’s time for the Orthodox world to start educating and recognising female rabbis,” says Camerini. “It’s not even a revolutionary idea, it’s a natural consequence of our times.” In addition to being a seasoned educator, Miriam Camerini is a theater director, writer, singer and actress.
She’s worked in legendary venues like the Opera Theatre in Zürich and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Born in Jerusalem, she was raised in Milan, a city that she dearly loves and calls “the only large Italian city resisting to the current political climate.”
FULL STORY Mutiny In Milan: Meet Italy’s first Orthodox woman rabbi-to-be (Forward)
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Photo: Forward
