JOFA Australia

11/02/2026

Very exciting to celebrate the launch of the JOFA Australia Writers Retreat Anthology!

Fabulous to launch our first ever publication with the talented Elise Hearst alongside the women who attended the May 2025 JOFA writing retreat from Victoria and Western Australia.

The anthology compiles essays written by the women who attended the retreat and each JOFA Australia participant received coaching to write a personal essay that infused Torah and a topic related to women’s health.

It was a very special evening!

We would like to thank Abe and Dina White sponsoring the publication of the anthology❤️

10/02/2026

Something is coming!!

👀

Sneak peek before the launch of the JOFA Australia anthology!

18/12/2025

Here is a recording of the livestream with JOFA and JOFA Australia president Nomi Kaltmann from earlier this week, about the Bondi massacre:

15/12/2025

With heart's broken for our Jewish community in Sydney, we invite the community to debrief about the tragedy in a joint event between JOFA Australia and JOFA
Link to register is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dShgQtOBSm2z_w_FJWSaYQ

11/12/2025

Another JOFA Australia writing retreat participant has been published!

This time it is a piece by Rebecca Hoffmann in the The Australian Jewish News:

01/12/2025

If you are in New York this Sunday, join JOFA Australia president at the JOFA conference!

Join us for an insightful and inspiring session on “Making Orthodox Feminism a Global Movement” at the Jofa International Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy on December 7, 2025 in New York City.

Hear from global feminist leadership pioneers and learn what North American and International communities can teach one another.

Moderator: Rabba Daphne Lazar Price
Speakers: Rabba Anat Sharbat, Rabbanit Nomi Kaltmann, Rabbi Dina Brawer

Register today: https://jofa.givecloud.co/2025-jofa-conference

30/11/2025

Naomi Dascal’s essay sits with the grief, relief and tenderness that come when someone you love lives for years inside dementia.

She traces the small rituals of care, the lost language, the twinkle that remained, and the mystery of how love survives when memory and recognition fall away.

Written with support from JOFA Australia and TJI, the piece explores caregiving, connection and the sacred endurance of love.

30/11/2025

Another gorgeous essay has come out of the JOFA Australia writing retreat! This time a personal essay by Naomi Dascal in Plus61J Media:

A heartfelt essay on the enduring love of a grandmother with dementia, exploring the power of love that transcends the confines of a deteriorating brain.

28/11/2025

Leah Groner, another one of JOFA Australia’s writing retreat participants in the The Australian Jewish News today, with a piece she worked on at the retreat!

25/11/2025

If you are in New York on Sunday 7 December, come to the JOFA conference!

09/10/2025

Published in The Australian Jewish News today, another one of JOFA’s writing retreat participants, Leah Groner:

'While this year, I received the Torah on my bedroom floor, somehow, in the pain and the quiet, it felt more real than ever.'

28/08/2025

Thrilled to share the latest opinion piece from the JOFA Australia and Plus61J Media opinion editorial writing program, written by Corinne from the Bega Valley:

“Growing up in Melbourne's Holocaust survivor community, as kids we groaned at another Holocaust lecture or film. Today, I understand why it was necessary.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that in a regional town like Narooma, showing a film about the massacre of Israelis at the Nova Dance Festival would be a cause for protest. I felt distressed and sickened at the community's lack of desire to learn, to be confronted.
Jews have carried intergenerational trauma for thousands of years, and it is in me now, in this quiet valley. I feel isolated from the community I love…”

Link here:

A Bega Valley resident reflects on Jewish identity in the Bega Valley