Midreshet Lindenbaum

Midreshet Lindenbaum (מדרשת לינדנבאום)[1], originally named Michlelet Bruria, is a pioneering Jewish educational institution for women.[2] It is currently located in Talpiot, Jerusalem. The midrasha continues to be a leader in Jewish women's education. Many of the teachers at Matan, Nishmat, Pardes and other women's and co-ed yeshivas in Israel and abroad studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum.

History

Michlelet Bruria was founded in 1976 by Rabbi Chaim Brovender, as the woman's component of Yeshivat Hamivtar. At Bruria, as in a traditional men's yeshiva, women studied in hevrutot (a traditional Jewish system of partner-based religious study) and learned Talmud as well as advanced Tanach.[3]

In 1986, Bruria merged with Ohr Torah Stone Institutions and was renamed "Midreshet Lindenbaum" after Belda and Marcel Lindenbaum.[3][4]

Programs

Midreshet Lindenbaum offers a certificate in "Halachik leadership" (מנהיגות הלכתית) - a five-year course in advanced studies in Jewish law, with examinations equivalent to the rabbinate’s ordination requirement for men. [5] In 2014 the first ever book of halakhic decisions written by women who were ordained to serve as poskim (Idit Bartov and Anat Novoselsky) was published. [6] The women were certified by the Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, municipal chief rabbi of Efrat, after completing the course. [7]

It has also been a leader in developing women's role in rabbinical courts in Israel and in founding the first school dedicated to training women to serve as advocates in religious courts - [8] [9] [10] known as Toanot Rabniyot or simply to'anot in Hebrew. Lindenbaum, relatedly, operates a legal aid center and hotline which has taken an active role in advocating for a resolution to the Agunah problem[11][12] (an agunah is a woman married according to Orthodox Jewish law who has been abandoned by her husband without receiving a Jewish divorce and as a result she may not remarry and is considered "chained" until such time as the husband delivers a kosher get divorce document.)

Midreshet Lindenbaum also runs a Torah study program for developmentally disabled young men and women known as Midreshet/Yeshivat Darkaynu.[13][14] [15]

See also

• Jewish feminism
• Midrasha - overview of higher Jewish learning institutions for women.
• Role of women in Judaism - discusses various views of woman's study, including Haredi objections to Talmud study by women.
• Torah study - discusses the mitzvah of learning.
• Similarly focused Midrashot:
  • Matan
  • Nishmat
  • Midreshet Ein HaNetziv
  • Drisha Institute[16]

Footnotes

1. https://www.midreshet-lindenbaum.org.il/
2. El Or, Tamar. trans. Haim Watzman. "Next Year I Will Know More: Literacy and Identity among Young Orthodox Women in Israel", Wayne State University Press.
3. Furstenberg, Rochelle. "The Flourishing of Higher Jewish Learning for Women". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1 May 2000.
4. About Midreshet Lindenbaum Archived 2007-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
5. המכון-למנהיגות-הלכתית
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2015-03-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2015-03-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. See the Hebrew Wikipedia article he: יד לאישה
9. The Monica Dennis Goldberg School for Women Advocates
10. Women Advocates Make Their Mark, Jewish Action, 2004
11. Max Morrison Legal Aid/Yad Lalsha Archived 2007-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
12. "Divorcing the Courts". Jerusalem Post, Dec 28, 2006, p. 5
13. "Their enthusiasm is contagious, The Jewish Week, October 12, 2005". Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
14. Midreshet Darkaynu
15. http://www.darkaynu.org.il/
16. drisha.co.il

References

• Tamar Ross, "Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism" Brandeis University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58465-390-6

External links

• Official website