Since its founding in 1999, YCT has championed women’s maximal participation within halakha and Orthodoxy. For 25 years, women’s active participation in Torah, ritual, synagogue life, and religious leadership has been one of the most recognizable characteristics of YCT-led shuls and communities.
We are proud of our role as rabbinic allies in supporting the trailblazing and transformational work being done in this field by women rabbinic and communal leaders and women’s institutions.
Rikmah rabbis and rabbaniyot learning with YCT and Maharat students in the YCT beit midrash.
Its Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Dov Linzer, is the go-to halakhic authority for rabbis and lay people on halakhic issues in this arena. His rulings are unequaled in their rigor and responsiveness to women’s experiences and concerns.
Through its rabbi-community network, and its Rikmah and Livyat Chen programs in Israel, YCT has been training and supporting women in positions of rabbinic and religious leadership and helping them to break into closed male rabbinic networks and be welcomed as equals.
Noteworthy Accomplishments
Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold officiating at a bat mitzvah ceremony at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal
- Our graduates have led the way in hiring and creating rabbinic and communal-leadership positions for women, including many of the Maharat musmachot and Devorah Scholars serving in the Orthodox community.
- YCT hired the first women to be a teacher of halakha in a men’s Orthodox rabbinical school and to serve as spiritual advisor to its rabbinical students and as senior scholar for the broader community.
- We promote and prominently feature women’s Torah scholarship in our Torah publications, Chagim Readers, parsha sheets, and Torah website.
- Through our Kollel for Psak, we bring together men and women who are serious Torah scholars and in positions of religious leadership to create an active and collaborative community of poskim and poskot for our community.
- Our Israel-based Rikmah and Livyat Chen programs bring religious leadership training to Israelis rabbis and rabbaniyot. The graduates of these programs now constitute a strong, mutually supportive rabbinic community of Am Yisrael-oriented rabbis and religious leaders in Israel.
A sampling of some of the hundreds of teshuvot, articles, op-eds, and podcast episodes that YCT has produced on these topics:
Check out the YCT Torah Library for teshuvot & articles on gender, lifecycle events, marriage & family, sex & niddah, and more.
Recommended Videos
R. David Wolkenfeld and R. Sara Wolkenfeld – Mesekhet Shviit, Perek 3
Rabbanit Leah Sarna- A Permanent Shemitah: The Time Management Philosophy of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai
Rabbanit Jennie Rosenfeld (Rikmah ’24) – The Power of Small Redemptions
Rabbi Linzer speaking at NCJW Abortion Rally
Rabba Yaffa Epstein- For the Rest of Us: A Year of Rejuvenation
Torah of Ukraine: An Evening of Study and Solidarity – Professor Susannah Heschel
Rabbanit Leah Sarna – Midrash and Ma’aseh: The Women Redeemers of the Hagadah
Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold – Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells our Story: Crafting our Personal Passover Narratives
Rabbanit Yaffit Clymer – Moshe’s Story: Looking into the Future (Hebrew)
Lieberman Award Dinner Featuring Global Disability Leader Judy Heumann
Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold – Mesekhet Shviit, Perek 9
Rabbanit Goldie Guy – Mesekhet Shviit, Perek 8
Rabba Wendy Amselem – Mesekhet Shviit, Perek 5
R. Devorah Zlochower – Mesekhet Shviit, Perek 2
R. Daniel Wolf, R. Haggai Resnikoff, R. Amalia Hass – Jewish Law Q&A on Climate
