search
Yeshivat Maharat
Rabbanit Jenna Englender dances with the Torah during her graduation ceremony from Yeshivat Maharat in New York, June 17, 2019. (Shulamit Seidler-Feller/Maharat/via JTA)
December 22, 2019, 8:54 am
10 years after launch of first yeshiva for women clergy, has anything changed?
32 of the 33 graduates of the Orthodox Yeshivat Maharat have jobs, but though some liberal synagogues will give them pulpit positions they still can’t count toward a prayer quorum
By Josefin Dolsten
Illustrative: Jewish Orthodox women study Talmud at Kibbutz of Migdal Oz religious study seminary on May 23, 2013. (FLASH90 / Gershon Elinson)
December 12, 2019, 12:47 pm
Talmud study is mostly a boys’ club. This Orthodox woman wants to change that
Michelle Farber has taught her all-female class a page a day for the last 7 1/2 years as part of the Daf Yomi cycle, and on Jan. 5 will host first major women’s completion ceremony
By Ben Sales
Yeshivat Maharat students attend a graduation ceremony in New York, June 17, 2019. (Shulamit Seidler-Feller/Yeshivat Maharat via JTA)
November 8, 2019, 12:52 pm
New program pays Orthodox synagogues to hire female spiritual leaders
Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance offering grants of up to $10,000 a year to synagogues that hire women for newly created positions
By JTA
Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot and Marianne Novak. (Courtesy of the Jewish Standard/via JTA)
February 12, 2019, 2:52 pm
In NJ, Orthodox rabbis vote to bar a colleague for training female clergy
New RCBC bylaws do not allow as members leaders of congregations that let women hold rabbinic positions or internships that are part of ordination programs
By Larry Yudelson
Britain's first Orthodox female rabbi, Dina Brawer (Screen capture: YouTube)
May 10, 2018, 6:14 pm
Britain’s first Orthodox female rabbi is ordained
Dina Brawer, who founded UK’s Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, receives semicha in London from Rabbi Daniel Sperber
By JTA
Maharat Ruth Friedman with the manager of Khepra’s Raw Food Juice Bar, a vegan restaurant she and Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld recently certified kosher. (Courtesy of Friedman/via JTA)
April 25, 2018, 4:40 am
How Washington, DC got a bunch of new kosher restaurants
Maharat Ruth Friedman and Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld are providing supervision at five local vegan joints — but one rabbi threatens to boycott them unless Friedman steps down
By Ben Sales
Ohev Sholom synagogue's Ruth Friedman (YouTube screenshot)
February 1, 2018, 5:54 am
Orthodox Union won’t penalize synagogues that already have women clergy
But the organization reaffirms its decision prohibiting other shuls from hiring women in rabbinic positions
By Ben Sales
November 16, 2017, 11:38 pm
Spiritual leader at NY Orthodox community says she’s no ‘bra-burning feminist’
Through sharing her love affair with Yiddishkeit, Israeli-born Michal Kohane is driving Modern Orthodoxy to new levels of equality
By Cathryn J. Prince
Michal Kohane. (Courtesy)
September 6, 2017, 3:23 am
Brooklyn Orthodox synagogue hires woman as spiritual leader
Michal Kohane will serve as Rosh Kehila, or ‘head of the community,’ for the Prospect Heights Shul
By JTA
Rabbi Adam Scheier, the senior rabbi at Canada's oldest traditional Ashkenazi synagogue, Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, and a member of the Israeli rabbinate's 'blacklist.' (courtesy)
July 11, 2017, 12:54 pm
A blacklisted Diaspora rabbi is pleased to find himself in good company
Adam Scheier, rabbi of Leonard Cohen’s Orthodox Montreal synagogue, says the issue is not getting himself off the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s list, but that there is a list at all
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Yeshivat Maharat graduates at their ordination ceremony at Ramaz High School in New York City, June 16, 2013 (photo credit: Joe Winkler/JTA)
May 20, 2017, 2:45 am
Orthodox Union asks women clergy to change their titles
Move follows February ruling by umbrella group that bars females from serving in positions of spiritual authority
By Ben Sales
Rabba Ramie Smith was ordained in 2016 and is now a clergy member at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, an Orthodox synagogue in New York. (Courtesy of Rabba Smith)
February 4, 2017, 5:07 pm
Facing OU synagogue ban, Orthodox women clergy vow to keep working
‘The way I’m reacting is showing up to work and continuing to do my job,’ says Rabba Ramie Smith of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
By Ben Sales
Illustrative: A woman leads a partnership minyan at a conference in New York of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, December 2013. (Mike Kelly/JTA)
February 3, 2017, 2:11 am
OU bars women from serving as clergy in its synagogues
A response to handful of women with ritual or prayer leadership roles, ruling forbids formal religious guidance positions or delivering sermons during services
By JTA
Rabbi Denise Eger, a contributor to 'The Sacred Calling,' center, reading Torah during her installation as CCAR president, March 16, 2015. (David A.M. Wilensky)
August 3, 2016, 2:18 am
The big book of women rabbis tells a grand story
Growing more comprehensive every day, the 40-year-old story of female clergy requires a hefty tome
By Joanne Palmer
Sara Hurwitz
June 24, 2016, 1:56 pm
Sara Hurwitz
A clear, credentialed path for women
As recently as 7 years ago, the landscape for female Jewish leaders was lonely; no more, thanks to Yeshivat Maharat
Load More
Join us!
A message from the Editor of Times of Israel
David Horovitz

For as little as $6 a month, you can help support our independent journalism — and enjoy an ADS-FREE experience, as well as special benefits and status as a Times of Israel Community member!

Read more

The Times of Israel covers one of the most complicated, and contentious, parts of the world. Determined to keep readers fully informed and enable them to form and flesh out their own opinions, The Times of Israel has gradually established itself as the leading source of independent and fair-minded journalism on Israel, the region and the Jewish world.

We've achieved this by investing ever-greater resources in our journalism while keeping all of the content on our site free.

Unlike many other news sites, we have not put up a paywall. But we would like to invite readers who can afford to do so, and for whom The Times of Israel has become important, to help support our journalism by joining The Times of Israel Community.

So join now - and for as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel website ADS FREE on desktop and mobile, as well as special benefits and status as a Times of Israel Community member.

* The ADS-FREE experience will still show sponsored content. It will become available on the TOI smartphone app in the near future.

Join the times of israel community Join our community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this