Yeshivat Maharat accepts women as students who self-identify as Orthodox and want to serve the Jewish community in a spiritual leadership position. YM has an Open Orthodox philosophy. This includes a religious worldview rejecting the approach of relying on a small group of scholars to decide all social and political matters; a belief that all knowledge is part of a sacred world so secular culture and knowledge should be embraced; open support for the modern State of Israel; expanded roles for women; pluralism and the importance of political activism. Yeshivat Maharat admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin.

Yeshivat Maharat was founded in the summer of 2009 after Rabbi Avi Weiss confirmed Sara Hurwitz as a halakhic and spiritual leader following seven years of study under his auspices and working as part of his rabbinical staff at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. YM’s entering class consisted of four women studying full time and two studying their pre-requisites at Drisha Institute part time. Two of the full time students follow an independent course of study and work as part of rabbinic staffs in congregations in Chicago and Montreal. They video-conference in for YM classes. YM is training its students using the best of traditional and innovative methods- a true combination of the ancient and the new!

Faculty and Staff

Rabbi Avi Weiss, Founder

Rabbi Avi Weiss, Founder, is the Senior Rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, a Modern and Open Orthodox congregation of 850 families and is the founder and President of Yeshivah Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School.  In 2007, Rabbi Weiss was named by Newsweek magazine as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America, describing him as “Orthodox’s leading activist and leader of the Modern Orthodox community.”  Rabbi Weiss has authored numerous books, articles and editorials published in journals and newspapers around the world.

Rabba Sara Hurwitz, Dean

Rabba Sara Hurwitz, Dean, is part of the rabbinic staff at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Following graduation from Barnard College, Columbia University, she entered and subsequently graduated from Drisha’s three-year Scholars Circle Program. After another five years of study under the auspices of Rabbi Avi Weiss, she was ordained by Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Daniel Sperber.  Rabba Hurwitz helped create JOFA’s Gender and Orthodoxy Curriculum Project and has lectured at many venues including JOFA, Drisha, the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, the JCC in Manhattan, Lights in Action, CAJE, CLAL, and various synagogues. She was named as one of the Jewish Weeks “36 Under 36,” and one of the Top Picks of the Forward50’s most influential Jewish leaders in 2009.

Sara can be reached at sarahurwitz@yahoo.com.

Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox, Rosh Yeshiva

Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox was the first graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.  Upon graduation he served as the Rabbi of Kehilat Kesher: The Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood for seven years.  In Rabbi Fox's tenure at Kesher, the community grew three-fold from thirty families to nearly one hundred.  During that time Rabbi Fox also taught at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah as well as the Florence Melton Adult Education School in Bergen County.  He also served on the board of the Synagogue Leadership Initiative of the UJA of NNJ.  Rabbi Fox is also a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute.  He has also been a member of the faculty of the Drisha Institute, the Florence Melton Adult Education School in Westchester County as well as Yeshivat Hadar.

Rabbi Fox can be reached at: rebjeff@yeshivatmaharat.org.

For audio shiurim, check his blog Through the Lens of Torah and Halakhah.

Dalia Miller, Assistant Director

Dalia Miller serves as the Assistant Director at Yeshivat Maharat, managing and implementing marketing and development strategies. Prior to joining the staff, she was Social Media Associate at Global Goods Partners in New York. Dalia studied International Relations and Studio Art, recieving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goucher College in Towson, MD.                                                                                                

Dalia can be reached at: dalia@yeshivatmaharat.org

Dr. Esther Altmann, Director of pastoral Education

Dr. Esther Altmann, Director of Pastoral Counseling at Yeshivat Maharat, is a clinical psychologist in private practice, specializing in psychotherapy with adolescents, young adults and couples. Formerly on the teaching faculty of new York University, Adelphi University and YCT Rabbinical School, she has also been a supervising psychologist at several New York City hospitals. She has served as an eating disorders consultant at several Jewish Institutions and helped develop the treatment program at the Renfrew Center for Orthodox patients. Dr. Altmann writes and lectures in schools and communities on mental health topics. She is currently on the teaching faculty of the Drisha Institute for Women.

Dr. Altmann can be reached at ealtmann@nyc.rr.com.

Rabbi Joanna Samuels, Director of Leadership Development 

Rabbi Joanna Samuels serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives for Advancing Women Professionals in the Jewish Community. In this capacity, she serves as an advocate, strategist, and mentor for women's advancement and gender equity in the Jewish community. Prior to assuming this position, she served as Rabbi of Congregation Habonim in New York City, where her leadership is widely credited with revitilizing the synagogue community. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. Joanna is a magna cum laude graduate of Barnard College and of the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. She resides in New York with her husband, Jeremy Hockenstein and her children Orli and Natan.

Erin Leib Smokler, Director of Spiritual Development

Erin Leib Smokler teaches in the integrated Pastoral training program at Yeshivat Maharat. She is a Claims Conference Advanced Shoah Studies Fellow at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and an instructor of Jewish Philosophy at the Drisha Institute. Erin holds an MA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Harvard University. Her writing regularly appears in JOFA's Shema Bekolah, and has also been featured in The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The Jerusalem Report, and The New York Jewish Week.