“That’s How You Make a Torah” – A Hands-on Workshop with Torah Scribe Rabbi Linda Motzkin
At this once-in-a-lifetime workshop, Romemu members will participate in the creation of a Torah scroll with Rabbi Linda Motzkin, the first woman known to make a Torah scroll from scratch. Rabbi Linda Motzkin is a Torah scribe and one of the stars of the short documentary, “That’s How You Make a Torah,” directed by Romemu’s Director of Programming Lauren Greenhall. Creating this film is what led Lauren to pursue a job in the Jewish professional world and is ultimately why she’s at Romemu.
Participants will get a sneak preview of the film followed by the opportunity to see and touch the raw materials — animal skin, sinew, quills, materials used in making ink, and more– that go into making a Torah scroll, and then participate in the sacred process of checking individual parchment panels before they can be assembled. Once completed, this Torah will be donated to a community in need of one.
All ages/families are welcome. Knowledge of Hebrew is not necessary to participate. Space is limited.
For more than 2,000 years, the Torah was scribed exclusively by men. It was only in 2007 that, for the first time, the entire Torah was written by a woman. In this 10-minute documentary film, meet two of the first known women Torah scribes, Jen Taylor Friedman and Rabbi Linda Motzkin, discover the obstacles they overcame to achieve this dream, and – as a Jewish woman – how their work affects the filmmaker personally.
This film was directed by Romemu’s own Lauren Greenhall, who received the 2024 DCJCC Matthew Harris Ornstein JxJ Short Film Fund to make this film. It is currently screening as part of an exhibition on Jewish Sacred Materials at the Berlin State Library in Germany and has screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Miami Jewish Film Festival, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Whittier College, and the Museum at Eldridge Street among others. She is beyond excited to be sharing it with her Romemu’ers. Creating this film is what led Lauren to pursuing a job in the Jewish professional world and is ultimately why she’s at Romemu.
Rabbi Linda Motzkin Bio: Rabbi Linda Motzkin is one of a handful of women in the world trained as a Hebrew scribe, a role traditionally reserved for men. Through her Community Torah Project, Rabbi Motzkin has opened up the sacred process of creating a Torah scroll to thousands of people nationally and internationally. Her hands-on educational workshops enable participants to engage in various steps in the making of a Torah scroll, from processing deerskins into parchment panels to stitching completed panels together. Rabbi Motzkin is also an accomplished artist, utilizing her knowledge of Hebrew sacred literature to create unique calligraphic artwork from pieces of her handmade deerskin parchment that are unsuitable for a Torah scroll. Rabbi Motzkin served for almost three decades as Jewish Chaplain at Skidmore College, and retired in 2022 from her position of co-rabbi at Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs after 36 years of job-sharing with her husband, Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein.
Lauren Greenhall bio: Lauren Greenhall is a documentary Webby-nominated filmmaker whose work explores how joy is a catalyst for lasting social change and self-realization.
She received the 2024 DCJCC Matthew Harris Ornstein JxJ Short Film Fund for her documentary “That’s How You Make a Torah” and was selected as a 2025 participant in the New York Jewish Artists retreat, presented by Asylum Arts and the Neighborhood. Greenhall was also a 2021 resident at the Jewish Film Institute for ZELDA – a documentary about an ultra-orthodox Jewish woman and her relationship with her wig–and was awarded the FY2024 Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts towards the completion of this film.
Her previous success profiling women in religious spaces include short documentary about modest fashionistas The Frock (NYPost) and news/doc piece on Abby Stein the first transgendered Hasidic Jew (Inside Edition). The virality of her series Muslims in America (HuffPost) landed her the opportunity to speak at NYU about the relationship between religion and the media.
Additionally, Greenhall has directed fiction feature films for hire, music videos, and branded documentary series as well as TV and video for Nat Geo, The New Yorker, Matador Records, CBS Interactive, HBO x ViceTV, Amazon Originals, and Marvel among others.