Natasha Mann

Rabbi Natasha Mann (born 17 January 1991) is a rabbi of New London Synagogue in the United Kingdom, which is affiliated to Masorti Judaism. She is the first openly queer rabbi in a traditional Jewish denomination in Europe.

Biography

Rabbi Mann was born in Hertfordshire, England, to non-Jewish parents. Her mother is English and her father is Indian, her paternal grandparents are Muslim and Sikh.

Mann then attended the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, which is affiliated to Conservative Judaism. She also worked for AJU as a mashgiach, a kashrut supervisor, for two years. Rabbi Mann was ordained in 2019 by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson. At graduation, Mann was also awarded the Henry Fisher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Jewish Studies.

Rabbi Mann is currently employed by New London Synagogue, the same synagogue through which she converted to Judaism and the founding synagogue of the Masorti movement in the UK in 1985. She also supports NOAM, the Masorti UK youth movement, and serves as rabbi to Hatch End Masorti Synagogue on a part-time basis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mann co-authored the halachic teshuvah for the introduction of "set and forget" passive livestreaming of services on behalf of the Masorti movement in the UK. Traditional Jewish law forbids the use of technology on Shabbat and festivals. Mann argued, relying on previous rulings on abortion, that the emotional distress caused by isolation on Shabbat and festivals due to social distancing requirements, permitted leniency even around biblical laws.