Praying with our Feet: Activism and Protest, If Not Now, When

Rabbi Leah Shakdiel was born in Jerusalem in 1951 to a family of Modern Orthodox pioneers. She moved to Yeruham, a small development town in the Negev Desert, in 1978, with a group committed to Halacha, social responsibility, peace, and ecology.  Mother of Rachel (42), Tzvi (40), and Pinchas (38), and grandmother of Toviya (19), Channah (17), Miriam (15), and Batya (11), she holds a BA from Bar Ilan University in English and French Literatures. Her other studies include Bible and Oral Law, Jewish Thought, Jewish History, and Education. She taught Hebrew and Jewish studies, developed teaching materials, trained teachers, coordinated and directed projects and institutions in the areas of education and community. She also taught courses on Jewish feminism, state and religion, and Israeli society, in the Schechter Institute and in Sapir college, and in post-high school pre-military programs. Rabbi Shakdiel is socially and politically active on behalf of peace, empowering the disadvantaged, civil and human rights, and feminism, having published academic and popular articles in all these areas. She served as the first Yeruham towncouncil female member ever (1983-8), and in 1988 became Israel’s first female member of a local Religious Council, following a successful struggle that ended with a landmark Supreme Court decision. As a School for Educational Leadership Fellow (1994-6) she developed a model for feminist pedagogy for Israel. She is the recipient of the Yig'al Alon Prize for Lifework as Pioneer (2009), the Israeli Parliament Distinction for Women Leading Change (twice, 1999, 2015), and the New Israel Fund (England) prize for human rights (2014). She studied towards Orthodox rabbinical ordination in Beit Midrash Har'el, Jerusalem, and was ordained in 2O19.-- STAY CONNECTED:🔗 All Socials: https://linktr.ee/utzedek🖥️   Website: https://utzedek.org📰  Newsletter: https://utzedek.org/subscribe🎁Donate: https://utzedek.org/donate