This podcast is powered by LSJS. Visit lsjs.ac.uk for our full Jewish learning programme &
find something that suits you.

Rabbanit Michelle Cohen Farber is the founder of Hadran, advancing Talmud study and Daf
Yomi for women. Michelle studied Talmud at Bar Ilan University and at Midreshet
Lindenbaum Scholars’ Programme. She’s taught gemara and halacha in Pelech Jerusalem,
Midreshset Lindenbaum and Matan Hasharon. Together with her husband, she founded and
leads Kehilat Netivot in Ra’anana where they live with their 5 children.

We discuss how the anchor of Daf Yomi kept her going through the traumas we’ve been
through as a people, why she focuses on women learning Talmud rather than Tanach, and
how, while peers left studying for teaching, she continued to invest in her own learning until
she judged the right time to move to teaching, and the difference that’s made for her and for
others.

Links:

Women's Gallery Episode with Dr. Rachel Levmore

LSJS Masters Degree in Jewish Education: lsjs.ac.uk/ma

The Iyun Programme: Advanced Halacha Learning for Women: lsjs.ac.uk/iyun

Unlocking Talmud: lsjs.ac.uk/talmud

Unpacking Parasha: In-depth, text based learning for women: lsjs.ac.uk/parasha

Hadran

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.