Limmud on women rabbis’ woes

“I have been accused of bringing down the wages of male rabbis — you know, because women are paid less,” she said.

Rabbi Kelman said that things were worse in Israel: she had been told that women rabbis were “emptying the synagogues”.

“Discrimination is more subtle now,” she said. “Like when you make a statement and nobody hears and then a man says the same thing straight after and it’s the most fascinating thing anyone has ever heard.”

Baroness Neuberger said that matters were better than they were. She said that, once, when she was the only woman in the room in a class at Leo Baeck rabbinical college: “One person asked me to make the tea and got it thrown at him. He hasn’t forgotten.”

Another situation worse than it seems is that of the Charedi population in Israel, warned economist Ben Richardson, himself a former member of the strictly Orthodox community, at another session.

A potent cocktail of high birth rates, poor education, lack of economic engagement and high dependency on benefits spelled the potential collapse of the Israeli economy.

“Israel may be the first country to go from being undeveloped to developed and back again,” he said.

Mr Richardson was due to speak on Tuesday about leaving Charedi society. Other highlights of Limmud included a session on settlers in the Occupied Territories, a talk on forgeries of historic Jewish documents and Strictly Limmud, its own take on Strictly Come Dancing.