Women’s Gallery: Showcasing Women in Jewish Leadership

This podcast is powered by LSJS. Visit lsjs.ac.uk for our full Jewish learning programme & find something that suits you. This week we’re meeting Hadassah Shemtov. Hadassah lives in LA where she teaches Gemara and Chumash to high school girls, particularly within the Chabad community. Hadassah noticed amongst the women in her community an underlying ‘estrangement from the source of our tradition’. She saw that many high school students were unfamiliar with the evolutionary process of halacha and thought it to be arbitrary rules. She found a low expectation for rigorous scholarship within Torah study that led peers to seek intellectual satisfaction elsewhere. So she co-founded the Batsheva Learning Center in 2015, and has spearheaded numerous innovative learning opportunities for women there, primarily in the New York area but also across the US. Hadassah and I discuss standing on the shoulders of giants such as Sarah Schnierer, what Chabad schools teach that others don’t, and the leadership advantage that Chabad ‘shluchot’ have over other female leaders. Women's Gallery Episode 10 with Dr. Erica Brown Women's Gallery Episode 4 with Dr. Elana Stein Hain Listen to Hadassah's podcast Real Women, Real Torah, and read her Substack.

This podcast is powered by LSJS. Visit lsjs.ac.uk for our full Jewish learning programme & find something that suits you. Dr. Erica Brown is Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and Founding Director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. An award winning author who writes extremely widely on Jewish Ethics, Bible and leadership, Erica’s new book, Morning has Broken: Faith after October 7th is out now. Previously she served as the director of the Mayberg Centre for Jewish Education and Leadership and was Associate Professor of Curriculum Pedagogy at the George Washington University. She’s a veteran of Jewish education and leadership who’s paved the way for so many people and continues to be a role model to me and many others in the world of Jewish education and leadership. Erica and I discuss how to choose where and when to apply our creative energy in leadership, an immersive approach to getting things done, getting women into writing, and carrying ourselves and others across the historical and difficult times we’re experiencing.

This podcast is powered by LSJS. Visit lsjs.ac.uk for our full Jewish learning programme & find something that suits you. This week I’m delighted and humbled to have with me Sarah-Jane Landsman of Kibbutz Alumim. In 2022, when there was no-one else to step up, Sarah-Jane took on a second term as Mazkirah (Director) of the kibbutz. That was how, on October 7th, she found herself in a very pivotal role, a role that really no training can provide any preparation for, and since then she’s relocated the whole kibbutz and cared for the different needs of that displaced community. Sarah-Jane and I met in July when I was privileged to visit Kibbutz Alumim and hear her incredible story, which has really stayed with me over these difficult months. This is the story of the last 400 days.

This podcast is powered by LSJS. Visit https://www.lsjs.ac.uk/ for our full Jewish learning programme & find something that suits you. Dr Rachel Levmore has spent decades bridging the world of Jewish Law, academia and social activism to help people from all walks of life negotiate the difficult process of Jewish divorce. That makes her one of my real mentors professionally and my inspiration for the work that I’ve done in Get refusal. She’s a veteran who has dedicated her life to this issue.  Rachel is a Rabbinical Court Advocate, and the director of the Aguna Prevention Project. She lives in Efrat and has a PHD in Talmud and Jewish Law from Bar Ilan University. For more information on these topics, listen to our episode with Keshet Starr on Get refusal, our episode with Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll on social activism, and read Rachel’s article, [article title]. If you’re a woman who wants to improve her own halachic knowledge, you can join our Iyun Women’s Halacha Programme. To read Rachel Levmore's article, "Agunot, Follow These Instructions," click here.