Rabbi Miri Lawrence

As a child my parents were active members at South London Synagogue and my brother, twin sister and I went to religion school there and were all confirmed at SLLS. Later I taught at the religion school.

After school I studied Drama And Religious Studies and gained a BA hons at the university of Surrey.

From there I was accepted to train for the rabbinate at Leo Baeck College. During that time I met Warren whom I married in 1991. I was ordained in 1992. During the same year I was awarded an MA in Jewish Studies.

Following Semichah I became Rabbi of Ealing Liberal Synagogue where I served the community for four years. During this time I had my two lovely children. Following my son’s diagnosis of autism, I left Ealing in order to train and set up early childhood programmes for pre school children with communication difficulties. I set up a two-year home programme, training teachers and team leading staff. My work in this area and its relevance to Jewish education was later published in the chapter ‘The little boy who did not know how to ask’ in ‘Taking up the Timbrel’ SCM press.

In 1999 I was appointed Director of Education at Wimbledon Synagogue, part-time Rabbi of the progressive Community of East Anglia and lecturer in Jewish studies and Teacher Training at Roehampton Institute of Higher Education. I also designed an award winning medical website and wrote articles on the history of medicine for the same company.

In 2002 I took up the post as Director of Beginnings a brand new progressive early childhood centre in West London. This post has enabled me to combine my love of teaching Judaism, as well as my interests in design and drama. It has been wonderful to watch the project grow, from being involved in the building of the premises, to a fully operating centre with over forty children attending, eleven members of staff, one of whom recently won the national child carer of the year award. I am particularly interested in Reggio Emilia, which I have visited and we have a consultant from Singapore who visits us twice a year. It remains an exciting project and I am currently working towards a leadership MA in this field.

I continue to run a home programme for my son and his recent Bar Mitzvah this year was the proudest day of my life. My daughter has inherited my love of drama and retail therapy!

In my spare time I have recently taken up running and this enables me to raise money for causes close to my heart, such as autism charities. This year I ran two marathons in six months for Mencap – the London Marathon and The New York Marathon.