Bridging Generations: Jewish Lessons, Legacies & Lived Experiences
Monday 14th of July 6.45-8pm
The Alliance of Jewish Women presents an intergenerational panel exploring the lived experience of Jewish women—how identity is shaped, challenged, and celebrated across generations.
Through rich conversations with four remarkable panellists: Rabbi Jackie Tabick, Rachel Gaffin, Hannah Gaventa and Sasha Meir; we’ll delve into the ways being both Jewish and female informs daily life—our interactions, ambitions, traditions, and sense of belonging. From professional spaces to personal rituals, communal leadership to quiet resilience, this discussion will uncover how identity evolves and adapts in different environments while still holding firm to shared values.
Panellists will share experiences, reflections, and the parallels and contrasts that emerge across generations, offering practical insights into the ways Jewish identity intersects with everyday decisions, career paths, and community involvement.
We will follow the panel discussion with a light kosher supper, some drinks and plenty of time for networking with older and newer friends, within and across the generational divide. We do hope you can come.
Our Panellists:
Sasha Meir is a 25-year-old mental health practitioner currently working within the NHS, where she delivers mental health interventions to children in schools. She completed a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Sciences from UCL and studied Psychology at the University of Leeds, where she had the opportunity to spend a year abroad in Herzliya, Israel. This experience sparked a personal journey back to religion. After her undergraduate, she deepened this exploration by spending a year studying in Midrasha. Sasha is passionate about bridging her involvement in both Jewish and non-Jewish community spaces, and values fostering understanding and balance between them.
Hannah Gaventa is an international development specialist with over a decade of experience across 12 countries, having lived and worked in West Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. As a consultant on equality and inclusion, she partners with international NGOs, multilateral institutions, and private sector actors to design and implement inclusive strategies for climate adaptation, economic development, and education reform. Hannah brings a practical, participatory approach to her work, facilitating engaging workshops and trainings tailored to local contexts. She integrates robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks to support impact measurement. Her focus is on turning inclusive policy into practice - centring the voices of marginalised communities and building systems that are both resilient and equitable. She is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Politics of Environment and Resources, with a research focus on inclusive environmental policy and the impact of whale conservation on Indigenous fishing communities in the Caribbean.
Rachel Gaffin is an actor and producer who, since the rise in antisemitism following 7th October, particularly in the arts community, decided to face the challenge head on and originated the idea of the Joyfully Jewish theatre project, which creates a safe space for Jewish creatives and Jewish audiences alike, allowing them to fully embrace and enjoy their Jewishness in all its glory. Joyfully Jewish also brings new Jewish writing to life, opening the door to Jewish writers whose work might not otherwise be seen. Although not an original tagline, 'Jewish Joy is Resistance' is an idea that Rachel has taken and successfully run with, and further productions of Joyfully Jewish are currently in development.
Rachel has trodden a double path in her life as a Jewish woman. As well as a career as an actor (she also wrote, produced and performed, 'I Will Tell...', a one-woman play based on the diaries of children written during the Holocaust) she has had a parallel career, having taken on a 'small, part-time administrative role' at Finchley Reform Synagogue when her children were small, a role which grew over time and she has now been there for 19 years, playing an important part in the lives of the shul membership (under the name Rachel Fidler).
Rabbi Jackie Tabick was the first woman rabbinic graduate from Leo Baeck College 1975. She worked at West London, Weybridge and West Central Liberal synagogues and then ran the Beit Din, the Rabbinic Court for the Movement for Reform Judaism in the UK and the European Progressive Beit Din. She is involved in Interfaith work, co-vice-President of the World Congress of Faiths and the board of Kaiicid. She is married to Rabbi Larry and they have three children, one a M’sorati rabbi, one a Talmud lecturer, the other beautifully creative. She is also blessed with five beautiful grandchildren...though of course, she is not in any way biased on that subject!