Madison shul has Torah written by female scribe

    On June 28, Congregation Shaarei Shamayim welcomed the Madison Jewish community’s first Torah scroll written by a female scribe.

   The Reconstructionist-Renewal synagogue commissioned the scroll from Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli, according to an article in the June issue of the Madison Jewish News.

   Lavery-Yisraeli was born in Northern Ireland and now lives and works in Sweden. The article also says that she wrote the Torah, her first such scroll, in an unusual Hebrew script, called Darda’im, used by a small group of Yemenite Jews.

   The event coincides with the congregation’s 25th anniversary year, according to the article.