Tagged Rabbi Avi Weiss

10 years after the founding of the first Orthodox school to train female clergy, what’s actually changed?

Rabbanit Jenna Englender dances with the Torah during her graduation ceremony from Yeshivat Maharat in New York, June 17, 2019. (Shulamit Seidler-Feller/Maharat)
December 18, 2019 / Josefin Dolsten, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up in a Modern Orthodox community in South Africa, Sara Hurwitz never imagined that she would one day become a clergy member. The Conservative and Reform movements have been ordaining female rabbis for decades. But in the Orthodox world, women are barred from many… Read more »

With resolution against hiring women rabbis, RCA votes for confrontation
November 4, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – When America’s main modern Orthodox rabbinical association voted last week to ban the hiring of clergywomen by its members, the question wasn’t whether to endorse women rabbis. It was whether to widen the group’s well-established repudiation of female clergy or keep quiet and focus on finding common ground with modern… Read more »

New cohort of clergy tests Orthodox readiness for women rabbis

Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez is in Yeshivat Maharat's 2018 class. (Uriel Heilman)
May 12, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – When Yeshivat Maharat ordains six women next month, the New York institution will more than double the number of Orthodox clergywomen in the field. For the past couple of years, the clergywomen have been establishing themselves in Orthodox communities while serving as synagogue interns, delivering… Read more »

On rights of non-Orthodox rabbis in Israel, where’s the outrage?
January 30, 2014 / Julie Schonfeld, JTA

The good news is in: Rabbi Avi Weiss’ conversions will be accepted in Israel. I am glad to see that the religious integrity and leadership of Rabbi Weiss has been acknowledged. Undoubtedly, this course correction on the part of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate is due in part to the… Read more »

For graduates of Avi Weiss’ academy, ordination comes with controversy
June 23, 2013 / Ben Harris, JTA
Yeshivat Maharat graduates at their ordination ceremony at Ramaz High School in New York City, June 16, 2013 (Joe Winkler)

NEW YORK (JTA) — More than three years ago, following a broad Orthodox backlash to his decision to ordain a woman with the title “rabba,” Rabbi Avi Weiss made a promise: He wouldn’t do it again. So when Yeshivat Maharat, the school founded in 2009 by the New York… Read more »