Rabbi Hadassah Davis

Reading Liberal Jewish Community

I received smicha (ordination) from the Leo Baeck College in 1993, having previously gained two BA (Hons) degrees, one in Modern European History with Religious Studies, and the other in Jewish Studies, and an MA in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. 

My rabbinic thesis was a study and decoding of Isaac Abravanel's introduction to the Book of Kings, on the surface a simple historical preface but with, I discovered, a fascinating coded undertext. 

I am also a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and my qualifying paper was 'Malignant Transference - Extreme Countertransference'.  

I currently work as a part-time rabbi to the Reading Liberal Jewish Community (RLJC), combining being a rabbi to this small but vibrant community with being a psychoanalytic psychotherapist.  As well as being rabbi to RLJC, I am Head of the Religion School, teach bar and bat mitzvah and run GCSE and Community Education classes. 

Our services are a combination of traditional and creative, and we regularly get comments from vistors on how much they have enjoyed our community services and welcoming informality.  

In addition to my two professions, I am a convenor of a group that works together experientially combining study of Christianity and Judaism with Jungian thought, and I am a member of an interfaith group that studies and deeply explores religious concepts together.