The Church of England allowed the ordination of priests in 1992 and progressive Jewish denominations now have female rabbis, but musicologist and lecturer Jaclyn Chernett has recently made history by becoming the first woman in the UK to be ordained as a Chazan or 'Cantor', a post only held in traditional Jewish communities.
There are female Chazans in some other parts of the world, including Israel and America, and Jaclyn was ordained by the Academy for Jewish religion in New York, where she has spent two weeks of every month studying for the last two and a half years.
She is now able to officially lead prayer services at Kol Nefesh Masorti Synagogue in North West London. Felicity Finch went to meet her at her home.
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