by Rebecca Honig Friedman

There’s been such great discussion about the new Yeshivat Mahara”t, I wanted to find out more about what this Orthodox women’s rabbinic-like yeshiva will entail. Here’s what I learned on the phone with the very first Mahara”t Sara Hurwitz in a phone conversation today.

Yeshivat Mahara”t is being founded by Hurwitz and Rabbi Avi Weiss, and will be housed at Weiss’ synagogue, The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, but the program is an independent entity, officially unrelated to the synagogue or to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Weiss’ rabbinic yeshiva for men.

While the planning has all happened very quickly, and many of the details are still up in the air, the yeshiva is set to commence classes in September. Class size is yet to be determined, but the number of inquiries Hurwitz has already received in the less than one week since the call for applications was announced has been “overwhelming.”

Potential Yeshivat Mahara”t students are women “committed to the Orthodox world,” who want to work in spiritual leadership positions in the community.

The yeshiva will be set up along the same track that Hurwitz took in her own studies to earn the Mahara”t title. The yeshiva would like to be flexible with women’s schedules, but the basic plan is for students to learn part-time, 4 hours a day, for 4 years (though Hurwitz took 5 or 6 to complete her own studies), in chevruta with each other and in frontally taught classes, “with an eye toward psak,” how to integrate the law into daily life (particularly laws of kashrut, Sabbath observance and Niddah).

Who will teach those classes, i.e. who will be the yeshiva’s “rebbe,” is still to be determined.

Students will also take classes in pastoral counseling through another institution — which one TBD — in partnership with the yeshiva, and in the second year of the program, students will begin serving as interns in an Orthodox synagogue, university or hospital setting.
Yeshivat Mahara”t hopes to provide a small stipend to its students, though funding has not yet been secured for that purpose. Fundraising in general is still in progress.

Careful not to step on anyone else’s toes, Hurwitz has been speaking to the Drisha Institute and Stern College for Women about her plans for the yeshiva, and stressed that her goal is not to steal students away from these other learning programs for women. Rather, Yeshivat Mahara”t is filling a role that other programs for Orthodox women do not — training students to be working clergywomen, rather than learning for its own sake.

The women who have expressed interest in applying to Yeshivat Mahara”t come from a variety of backgrounds and ages. Several have been students at Drisha or Stern, but some just saw the ad in the NY Jewish Week and contacted Hurwitz. The women she’s spoken to so far have spanned a wide age range, from recent college graduates in their early twenties to middle aged women looking for a career change.

One potential applicant, who Hurwitz guesses is around 45, said she has always wanted to pursue a job in the rabbinate but, being Orthodox, has never been able to, and now feels that she may finally have the chance to fulfill her calling.

Posted on May 18th, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized |