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
August 11, 2019
Most people have a story of the first time they saw someone they thought was immune to tears break down and cry. The main character in the story varies: sometimes it is a parent, other times a grandparent, a rabbi, a teacher, or a coach. Sometimes the setting is as mundane as a particularly difficult...
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July 21, 2014
Weeping, our Imahot are weeping. 64 sons killed- our mothers are weeping. The midrash describes Yermiyahu as being asked by G-d to go to Maharat HaMachpela to awaken the Avot (Patriarchs) and Moses to intercede on behalf of the Jewish people, to beg for mercy. In this imagined discussion between G-d and the Avot described...
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July 21, 2014
There are holidays of closeness - Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot - and there is a holiday of distance - and that is the Ninth of Av. Rav Shlomo Wolbe, z”l, developed a concept that he heard from his teacher, Rabbeinu Yeruchum Levovitz, z”l of a "Holiday of distance.” There are times built into the Jewish...
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July 21, 2013
This week, while in Israel studying at the Hartman Institute in Yerushalayim, I experienced moments of sinat chinam, baseless hatred, and moments of optimism, illuminating the dream of unity and pluralism. At 6:20am on Rosh Chodesh Av, I boarded a bus with other men and women to go pray shacharit at the Kotel. The...
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