Jofa UK, the Orthodox feminist organisation, has announced  a number of new additions to its team including an American rabba who was ordained two years ago.

Rabba Ramie Smith, who graduated from the Orthodox women’s seminary Yeshivat Maharat in New York two years ago and has held a position at a large congregation, the Hebrew  Institute of Riverdale, is planning to settle in the UK.

She will act as Jofa UK's specialist in marriage, mikveh and batmitzvah education.

Yehudis Fletcher, from Manchester, is the new ambassador for the organisation, taking on the role that was held by Jofa UK founder Rabba Dina Brawer before she moved to the USA.

Ms Fletcher, a graduate of the London School of Jewish Studies’s Susie Bradfield women’s leadership programme, won a Simon Rockower award for American Jewish journalism earlier this year with a blog about sexual abuse that took the form of a kinah, a religious lament.

Jemma Silvert, a recent Oxford University graduate in psychology and philosophy, is programme development co-ordinator with a particular brief to expand Jofa’s presence among students.