Midreshet Lindenbaum

Midreshet Lindenbaum (מדרשת לינדנבאום), originally named Michlelet Bruria, one of the early leaders in the women's talmud study movement, is a Jewish educational institution for women.[1] 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.[2]

In 1986, Bruria merged with Ohr Torah Stone Institutions and was renamed "Midreshet Lindenbaum" after Belda and Marcel Lindenbaum.[2][3] It is currently located in Talpiot, Jerusalem.

Midreshet Lindenbaum 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 studied there at some point. One of its most notable students is Malka Binah, the founder of Matan, who also served as the director of the program there later on.

In 2014 the first ever book of halachic decisions written by women who were ordained to serve as poskim (Idit Bartov and Anat Novoselsky) was published. [4] The women were ordained by the municipal chief rabbi of Efrat, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, after completing Midreshet Lindenbaum's five-year ordination course in advanced studies in Jewish law, as well as passing examinations equivalent to the rabbinate’s requirement for men. [5]

Midreshet Lindenbaum 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.[6][7] known as to'anot in Hebrew. They also operate a legal aid center and hotline which has taken an active role in advocating for a resolution to the Agunah problem[8][9] (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 the developmentally disabled.[10][11]

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Furstenberg, Rochelle. "The Flourishing of Higher Jewish Learning for Women". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1 May 2000.
  3. ↑ About Midreshet Lindenbaum
  4. ↑ http://jpupdates.com/2014/06/26/first-halacha-sefer-women-makes-waves-israel-orthodox-world/
  5. ↑ http://jpupdates.com/2014/06/26/first-halacha-sefer-women-makes-waves-israel-orthodox-world/
  6. ↑ The Monica Dennis Goldberg School for Women Advocates
  7. ↑ Women Advocates Make Their Mark, Jewish Action, 2004
  8. ↑ Max Morrison Legal Aid/Yad Lalsha
  9. ↑ "Divorcing the Courts". Jerusalem Post, Dec 28, 2006, p. 5
  10. ↑ Their enthusiasm is contagious, The Jewish Week, October 12, 2005
  11. ↑ Midreshet Darkaynu

References