Women Aliyyot: Scholars Weigh In

Starting May 31-June 2, join JOFA for an online conversation about women’s aliyyot. Channa Lockshin Bob, Rabbi David Brofsky, Miriam Gedwiser and Rabbi Ysoscher Katz will engage in a conversation including halakhic and societal considerations in relation to this topic. Please refer to the following resources for background on the topic:

• Women and Kri’at Ha’Torah by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
• A Special Supplement: Women, Keri’at ha-Torah, and Aliyyot by R’ Aryeh Frimer and R’ Dov Frimer
• Congregation Dignity and Human Dignity: Women and Public Torah Reading by Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber
• Responding to Our Critics with Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber
• Torah Aliyyot for Women by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
• Qeri’at ha-Torah by Women: A Halakhic Analysis by Rabbi Mendel Shapiro
• Qeri’at Ha-Torah by Women: Where We Stand Today by Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin
• Women’s Aliyyot in Contemporary Synagogues by Rabbi Gidon Rothstein

Have any questions you would like the panelists to address? Click here to submit.

Channa Lockshin Bob is Head of Judaics at the Yachad School, a mixed religious-secular school in Modiin. She has taught Talmud and Halacha at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Before making aliyah in 2009, Channa taught Talmud and Halacha at Drisha and at Maayanot Yeshiva High School. Channa has an MA in Religion from Columbia University and is a graduate of the Drisha Scholars Circle.

Rabbi David Brofsky is a senior faculty member at Midreshet Lindenbaum, teaches at Midreshet Torah V’Avodah and for Web Yeshiva, and writes a weekly halakha shiur for the Virtual Beit Midrash (VBM). He received a B.A. and M.A. from Yeshiva University, and his ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel while studying and teaching in Yeshivat Har Etzion. He is the author of Hilchot Tefilla: A Comprehensive Guide to the Laws of Daily Prayer and Hilkhot Moadim: Understanding the Jewish Festivals, and a forthcoming book on the Laws of Mourning. He lives in Alon Shevut with his wife, Mali, and their four children.

Miriam Gedwiser is a faculty member at Drisha. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago in the History and Philosophy of Science and a JD from NYU School of Law. She studied in the Drisha Scholars Circle as well as at other programs in Israel and Boston, and has taught at several New York area synagogues and Hillels. She practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm, and completed a judicial clerkship in the Southern District of New York.

Rabbi Ysoscher Katz received ordination in 1986 from Rabbi Yechezkel Roth, dayan of UTA Satmer. Rabbi Katz studied in Brisk and in Yeshivat Beit Yosef, Navaradok for over ten years. A graduate of the HaSha’ar Program for Jewish Educators, Rabbi Katz has taught at the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls and SAR High School. He was a leading teacher of a daf yomi class in Boro Park for over eight years. He is also the Rabbi of the Prospect Heights Shul in Brooklyn, New York.