About Us
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 originn.
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!
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.
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, Rabbi Daniel Sperber and Rabbi Joshua Maroof. 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.
Rabbi Jeff 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 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 Berger County. He also served on the board of the Synagogue Leadership Initiative of the UJA of NNJ. Rabbi Fox has been a Rabbinic Fellow of the Hartman Institute as a member of the third cohort of the Rabbinic Leadership Initiative. He has been a member of the faculty of the Drisha Institute, the Florence Melton Adult Education School in Westchester as well as Yeshivat Hadar.
Renée S. Septimus, Director
Renée Septimus has worked in many capacities in the Jewish community over the last three decades. Her most recent position was at the 92nd Street Y as an administrator and counselor with older adults as well as program director of the highly successful Jewish Thought and Culture Program. Renée continues to teach and lecture about aging, parenting, Jewish women's spirituality and other Jewish topics. She has been featured in several books and publications about Judaism and women's issues.