Jewish Birth and Life Cycles: an afternoon of story and celebration
Jewish Birth and Life Cycles: An afternoon of story and celebration
On Sunday 7th June, Shifrah UK came together for its first community event as part of the Board of Deputies’ first Jewish Culture Month. We gathered at JW3 in North London, welcoming participants to celebrate Jewish birth and life cycles, bringing together a diverse range of Jewish voices in an afternoon of storytelling, music and reflection.
Talmudic Drawing Studio
The event began with a warm welcome from Laura and B.J. of Shifrah UK, alongside our host Maya Levy, before opening in song with Judith Silver of Companion Voices, who led I Am Enough. Her singing set a tone of warmth, grounding and shared presence that stayed with the room throughout the afternoon.
From there, the programme unfolded as a conversation between art, text, lived experience and ritual. Jacqueline Nicholls invited us into her Talmudic Drawing Studio, studying Jewish texts through drawing and imagination, including unexpected images of the Divine as Mother and Midwife.
B.J. Woodstein followed with reflections drawn from her book Be Fruitful: The Jewish Pregnancy and Birth Guide, sparking discussion about Jewish perinatal experience and the realities that sit alongside it.
Rabbi Charley Baginsky offered a thoughtful reflection on Jewish birth, continuity and culture, speaking about the vulnerability and uncertainty that so often sit beneath the idea of continuity, and the responsibility each generation carries in shaping what is passed on. We will be sharing her speech in full in a separate blog post.
Rabbi Charley Baginskey shared her reflections
Rabbi Miriam Berger shared a deeply personal reflection alongside her introduction to Wellspring, speaking movingly about mikveh as a space of transition, renewal and meaning. Her contribution brought together spirituality and lived experience in a way that resonated strongly across the room.
Later, poets Chloe Yale Pinto and Sharon Kanolik brought humour, honesty and emotional depth through readings on motherhood, identity and transformation, including Sharon’s I Want My Rack Back. Dani Diosi followed with The Wisdom of Menopause, reframing menopause as a new beginning and reflecting on its place within Kabbalistic thought.
As well as hosting and guiding the flow of the programme, Maya Levy also shared her own birth story and appeared at the piano, offering Yiddish and Ladino lullabies that added another layer of tenderness and pause to the afternoon.
The space throughout the event was filled with conversation, activity and connection. Tables offered everything from decoupage with artist Hanna Dahan to children’s crafts, journaling with Maternal Journal, and information stalls from Jewish Women’s Aid, Wellspring and PJ Library. Refreshments were served throughout, including tea, snacks, pickles and biscuits decorated with the Shifrah UK ‘Tree of Life’ logo, generously donated by Perele’s Cakes.
One especially joyful moment was welcoming Shifrah’s first “Shifrah baby,” who attended with their parents. It was particularly meaningful that the family were able to reconnect in person with their doula, Jennifer, who had originally been introduced to them through our Jewish Birth Worker Directory.
Shifrah UK community. Photo: Noah Vine
What made the day feel so special was not only the programme itself, but the sense of a community finally meeting in person after more than two years of Shifrah UK forming and growing. For many, it was the first time putting faces to names, and for others, a long-awaited reconnection. It was a genuinely family-friendly space, full of babies, children and multi-generational conversations.
We closed the afternoon as we began it, with Judith Silver returning to lead a final niggun, the room joining together in shared voice.
At the end of the event, we surprised our Chair, Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, with flowers as a heartfelt thank you for her leadership, vision and persistence in bringing Shifrah UK into being.
We are deeply grateful to all of our speakers, performers, facilitators, volunteers and guests for their generosity and openness. Thank you for helping make this gathering what it was - a true team effort, and a reminder of what becomes possible when community is not only imagined, but lived.