First Melbourne Orthodox synagogue appoints woman to rabbinic role

Shira Hadasha, an egalitarian Orthodox community, has appointed Rabbanit Ellyse Borghi as its pastoral care and life cycle guide.

Shira Hadasha becomes the second Orthodox synagogue in Australia to appoint a woman to a rabbinic role. Rabbanit Judith Levitan is religious programming coordinator at Maroubra Synagogue in Sydney.

Rather than running services, Rabbanit Borghi's role will focus on adult education, preparing b'nei mitzvah students and couples for marriage, and supporting community members in times of sickness and mourning.

"It's a lay-led community and it's a big part of Shira's identity that everyone has a place and everyone's contribution is valued, and the shul wasn't looking to change that model. Everyone takes turns leading prayers and reading from the Torah," said Borghi.

"Where we were looking to expand was where we saw a gap and that's really the essence of rabbinic work, to act as a community guide."

Shira, an 18-year-old community which meets at the Theodor Herzl Club in Caulfield, is an unusual synagogue. It follows a completely Orthodox service and adheres strictly to halacha, as interpreted by the most liberal Orthodox authorities. Women lead services and read Torah but men and women sit separately, divided by a mehitzah (a curtain prevents them seeing each other).

Women cannot count in the minyan or lead certain prayers, but the community also counts a minyan of women and reserves leading certain prayers for women to balance those that can only be led by men.

Rabbinit Borghi, 34, was ordained in 2019 by Yeshiva Hare-El in Israel. In addition to her part-time role at Shira, she is a children's lawyer working for Legal Aid and the mother of three young children.

She said she appreciated the considerable change that has occurred in Orthodoxy in recent years to enable greater participation by women.

"My role has taken a lot of work for decades from people in the Jewish community, going back to the women's prayer groups in the 1990s. I don't come out of nowhere," she told The Jewish Independent.