Yeshiva U. Gives First Woman Doctorate in Talmud
Yeshiva University gave its doctorate in Talmud to a woman, Shana Strauch Schick, 30, for the first time.
The university’s graduate study program in Talmud has been available to women since 2000, but Schick is the first woman to complete it.
Schick, a New Jersey native now living in suburban Detroit, successfully defended her dissertation on Aug. 4 and will formally graduate in September.
“Orthodoxy has long emphasized the value of the study of Talmud,” Schick told JTA in an interview. “But Talmud study, which in yeshivot is the central focus of the religious duty to learn Torah, is still rarely emphasized as a vital part of women’s education.”
Schick holds a master’s degree in Bible from Revel, YU’s graduate school for Jewish studies, and a bachelor’s degree in Judaic studies from YU’s Stern College for Women. She plans to spend the next academic year in Israel doing post-doctoral studies at Bar-Ilan University.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
