Czech Centre’s Women in Focus series continues with a talk by Kamila Kopřivová, the first Czech female rabbi currently based at the Westminster Synagogue. Kamila will share the story of her journey to the rabbinate moving through Berlin, Jerusalem and London, discuss the challenges of modern clergy and the daily reality of being a woman in this position.
ABOUT KAMILA KOPŘIVOVÁ
Kamila Kopřivová was ordained in September 2023 and has since served as a rabbi at the Westminster Synagogue at the Kent House in London.
She became interested in religion as a child, although she had intended to pursue a career as a scientist. In her teens, a teacher gave her Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim and this sparked her desire to know more about Judaism. She earned her PhD in Jewish Theology at Charles University, Prague, and went on to study at Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Potsdam, and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Journalism has also been part of her development. She worked as a Science writer and social media manager while at Charles University and she has lectured both there and at the Faculty of Arts, Potsdam University, on the ‘Challenges of twenty-first century Judaism’ and on Biblical Hebrew.
While studying in Jerusalem, she met Rabbi Benji Stanley, the Rabbi of Westminster Synagogue, which she knew was a a place very closely connected to Czech Jewish heritage. Then, still while continuing her training at Leo Baeck College, she came to be the Westminster Synagogue’s student rabbi.
Kamila Kopřivová will be in conversation with Jasmyn de Vien.
Jasmyn de Vien was raised by her Viennese grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, on a small island in Western Canada. She studied in Belgium, completed her teacher training in Prague and now works for the High Commission of Canada.
