Help Joe study in Jerusalem!

Hello! My name is Joe. I'm 25 years old. I grew up in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire and have lived in London since 2019. I work in politics for the Jewish community, advocating for religious freedoms and campaigning against antisemitism.

In my spare time, I am a lay leader at Westminster Synagogue, where I wear a couple of different hats. As the Chair of Adult Education, I work with our remarkable professional team to plan and deliver teaching for people at all stages of their Jewish journey. As Second Warden, I lead and support services on Fridays and Saturdays, and also teach others to do so.

It is a joy to be able to bring my enthusiasm for our texts, liturgy, and spirituality to others. However, my full-time political work can be very intense and a good chunk of my free time goes on preparing learning for the congregation - so I don't have much time to learn or be taught myself. I wanted to find a way of focusing on my own spiritual and academic development.

That's why at the start of this year I spent two weeks in Jerusalem at the Conservative Yeshiva (CY). For those unfamiliar, a yeshiva is sort of like a cross between a university and a monastery. The bulk of the day is taken up with prayer and intensive study of Jewish texts and concepts, generally with free time (or further study!) in the evenings.

Studying at the CY was one of the best times of my life. The teaching was exceptional, and it was an incredible privilege to orient my day around the rhythms of Jewish life. I encountered ideas, skills, and practices which could have taken me many years to discover by myself. It has been a wonderful thing to explore them further and to share them with others following my return to the UK.

Having had such a positive experience, I applied to study there for a full academic year. I'm so delighted that my application has been successful, and the CY is ready to welcome me from September 2023 to May 2024. What's more, the academic board liked my application enough to give me a full scholarship, worth $12,200.

This is enough to cover all of my tuition fees. However, it doesn't cover living expenses - the cost of rent and food in Jerusalem during the academic year. Although I am continuing in full-time work until the week before I fly out, and supplementing my savings by tutoring in my spare time, I will still be short on funding.

That's why I am inviting people to help me get to Jerusalem via this fundraiser. If you would like to support me in studying and learning skills which will benefit my community in the UK, or if you would like to get rid of me for an academic year, please feel free to give what you like. Every little helps!

Q&A

What exactly will you be studying at yeshiva?

The day generally starts at 7:30am and finishes at 6pm. Topics studied include:

Are you doing this because you want to be a rabbi?

I'm not sure whether a rabbinical career is in my future, but either way that isn't why I'm going. I'm going because I think it will benefit me as a person personally, spiritually, and professionally, and because it will therefore benefit the communities I serve too.

Will it also provide some clarity as to whether I should, or want to, become a rabbi? I expect that it will.

What exactly do you hope to get out of the programme?

I hope to come back a fully trained prayer leader in the Masorti/Conservative tradition, with a far greater capacity to teach people about Jewish texts, philosophy, ethics, and more. The specific skills I really want to develop are:

How will my donation be used?

All money given to this fundraiser will go towards the cost of living in Jerusalem for the academic year. Anything left over will be donated to Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam , 'Oasis of Peace', an intentional community of Jews and Arabs living together in Israel which provides educational programmes for youth on both sides of the conflict.

Thank you for reading. !לשנה הבאה בירושלים