AUSTIN, Texas – For centuries, the ancient art of writing the Torah was exclusively left for Jewish men, but not anymore.

For the first time, a Texas synagogue welcomed a new Torah that was written by a woman. 

Congregation Agudas Achim in Northwest Austin commissioned scribe Jen Taylor Friedman to handwrite their new Torah scroll. 

The Torah is a sacred text and object that stands at the center of Judaism and Jewish life.  It contained the first five books of Moses and the text must be handwritten with a quill, a bottle of homemade ink and on parchment paper. 

“It’s something special that you make by human agency, you can’t print it, it wouldn’t be the same. It’s special because it represents the connection between the Jewish people and the divine. It’s the link between God and people,” said Friedman, who lives in Montreal.

Friedman is one of less than two dozen women in the world who’ve mastered the role as a scribe or ‘soferet’ in Hebrew. 

“It’s an important and necessary development in order for our traditions to remain relevant and robust,” said Rabbi Neil Blumofe of Congregation Agudas Achim.

Blumofe said Austin and the Jewish community has changed drastically in the past 20 years. There are now about 750 families in the congregation.

He said commissioning a female scribe was intentional as the synagogue promotes egalitarianism and inclusion. 

“The fact that we have written our Torah and reemphasized our values of being a traditional congregation that is open to everyone to explore, men and women together, has been a really unique event in the life of our congregation which is over 100 years old,” Blumofe said. 

More than 600 people of Jewish and non-Jewish faith had their hand in the Torah’s creation. It was a yearlong process that was finalized during a dedication Sunday. 

“It represents the renewal of a process thats thousands of years old. It’s representing the renewal in every generation of the holy text that guides our lives as Jews,” said Friedman.

When unraveled, the scroll is as tall as the Statue of Liberty. If well-treated, CAA’s Torah, which was written on cow parchment, can last for 300 years.