Founding Rabbi Retires From Yeshiva That Trains Female Religious Judges
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
By Aiden Pink October 4, 2017
A prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi is retiring from the Israeli religious school network he founded that broke new ground in the religious education of Jewish women.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is stepping down as chancellor of the Ohr Torah Stone network, which he founded when he moved to Israel in 1983. Riskin, 77, will be replaced by Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the vice president for university and community life at Yeshiva University.
Ohr Torah Stone, based in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, is comprised of 24 educational institutions across Israel. It is notable for its educational programs for women, including the first-ever seminaries that train women to become poskim (arbiters of religious law) and advocates in Israeli rabbinical courts.
“Rabbi Brander is the perfect choice to lead this organization,” Riskin said in a statement.
Riskin expects to remain active in Jewish life, which was cheered by Sharon Weiss Greenberg, the executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.
“I am confident that Rabbi Riskin will continue to be a great leader for justice and inclusivity,” she told the Forward in a statement.
She added that Brander “has been supportive for women’s leadership and learning opportunities in the past, and I would imagine that an organization which has been taking the lead in progressing the level of scholarship and roles for women in Israel will flourish.”
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
