Maharat’s mission is to educate, ordain, and invest in passionate and committed Orthodox women who model a dynamic Judaism to inspire and support individuals and communities.
Brooke Pollak has co-chaired her synagogue’s Women’s Tefillah group and has been a frequent Gaba’it for their services. She has also worked with families to plan for, practice, and facilitate meaningful s’machot for numerous B’not Mitzvah. Brooke has also been active in her community’s partnership minyan. Brooke earned her bachelor’s degree in Judaic Studies from Yale and her law degree from NYU School of Law. During and after her undergraduate years, Brooke studied at Drisha and Pardes.
Our students and graduates teach, give divrei Torah, officiate at life-cycle events, counsel couples, and visit patients and families. More than 50 communities, including shuls, schools, Hillels, and communal organizations, have benefited from our leadership.
Maharat grants women semikha to serve as fully credentialed spiritual and halakhic leaders. Ordination follows a rigorous program of study and proven mastery of Jewish law, Talmud, Torah, Jewish thought, leadership, and pastoral counseling.
Graduates of Maharat are conferred with “toreh toreh”—a decisor of Jewish law, giving psak halakha. We encourage our graduates to use the professional title most appropriate to them, in consultation with the communities they serve.
Maharat was founded as the first yeshiva to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy, after the ordination of Rabba Sara Hurwitz by Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabbi Daniel Sperber.
Maharat was founded as the first yeshiva to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy, after the ordination of Rabba Sara Hurwitz by Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabbi Daniel Sperber.
Maharat was founded as the first yeshiva to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy, after the ordination of Rabba Sara Hurwitz by Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabbi Daniel Sperber.
Maharat was founded as the first yeshiva to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy, after the ordination of Rabba Sara Hurwitz by Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabbi Daniel Sperber.
Rabba Amy Newman teaches middle school Jewish Studies at Schechter Boston in Newton, Massachusetts, where she also coaches teachers and coordinates the Jewish Studies curriculum. Previously, Rabba Amy taught at Gann Academy: The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston, and at The Ramaz School. During her 16 years teaching in Jewish day schools, Rabba Amy has taught every grade from kindergarten
April 14, 2026
Yom Hashoah evokes traumatic and heartbreaking sounds of the darkest chapter in our people's history. If I close my eyes, I can almost hear the broken windows of storefronts on Kristallnacht. The shattering of glass in synagogues and in homes. I can hear the crackling of paper, the reams of holy words burning in shuls,...
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April 6, 2026
On the third day of Pesach, we read that Moshe asks Hashem to be allowed to see Hashem’s Presence. Hashem responds that Hashem will “make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Hashem, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show, but you cannot...
Learn MoreMarch 30, 2026
In the modern online space, the word “official” sounds quite convincing. It creates a feeling of reliability, stability and as if guarantees that you are dealing with a proven service. But in practice, everything is a little more complicated. Users are increasingly realizing that even an official website is just the beginning, not a complete...
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March 25, 2026
Why did the Jewish people, chosen to receive the Torah, first descend into centuries of exile and slavery in Egypt? Why could the Torah not have been given earlier to the seventy souls who entered Egypt, or even to the Patriarchs in Eretz Yisrael? The Haggadah teaches that “in every generation a person must see...
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