Midreshet Lindenbaum

Midreshet Lindenbaum (מדרשת לינדנבאום), originally named Michlelet Bruria, was one of the early leaders in the women's talmud study movement.^[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 have studied there at some point. One of their most notable students include Malka Binah, the founder of Matan.

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.^[4][5] 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^[6][7] (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.^[8][9]

See also

• Jewish feminism
• Midrasha - overview of higher Jewish learning institutions for women.
• Role of women in Judaism - discusses various views of woman's study, including Haredi objections to Talmud study by women.
• Torah study - discusses the mitzvah of learning.

External links

• Midreshet Lindenbaum overseas program
• Midreshet Lindenbaum Israeli program

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. ^ ^{a b} Furstenberg, Rochelle. "The Flourishing of Higher Jewish Learning for Women". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1 May 2000.
3. ^ About Midreshet Lindenbaum
4. ^ The Monica Dennis Goldberg School for Women Advocates
5. ^ Women Advocates Make Their Mark, Jewish Action, 2004
6. ^ Max Morrison Legal Aid/Yad Lalsha
7. ^ "Divorcing the Courts". Jerusalem Post, Dec 28, 2006, p. 5
8. ^ Their enthusiasm is contagious, The Jewish Week, October 12, 2005
9. ^ Midreshet Darkaynu

References

• Tamar Ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism" Brandeis University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58465-390-6