Below is the English translation of an invitation to an exciting – even historic – evening dedicated to “Women’s Halachic Leadership in Israeli Society,” under the auspices of the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute of Halachic Leadership (WIHL), an OTS program which broke new ground seven years ago by enabling women scholars to engage in a five-year course of study covering the same material covered by male rabbinical students, qualifying them to provide authoritative halachic decisions (psak) to the Jewish community in all matters of Jewish law and Jewish living.
The event will debut a compilation of She’elot U’Teshuvot (Jewish legal Responsa) penned by two WIHL graduates who have passed the tests equivalent to those taken by male rabbinical students after five years of intensive study, and who have been certified by the WIHL as decisors of halakha: Idit Bartuv and Anat Novoslevsky. The responsa relate to myriad subjects ranging from Shabbat and Festivals to issues pertaining to Jewish society and the State of Israel, testifying to the wide scope of halakha covered by WIHL students at the highest of levels.
After mastering exams in Kashrut, Family Purity, Shabbat, Mourning and Marriage, WIHL graduates are conferred with the traditional title of “Morat Hora’ah” (meaning that they hold a license to decide on matters of Jewish law) by Rabbi Riskin and WIHL head Rabbi Shuki Reich, (who is also rosh yeshiva of OTS’s Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Rabbinical Seminary for men).
If you are in the area: please join us! And if not, we trust that you will take pride in the achievements of these extraordinary women spiritual leaders and decisors. We have no doubt that with time, their contribution will facilitate a much-needed change within modern Orthodoxy and serve a crucial need to both the national-religious and secular communities in Israel.

For more information or to RSVP contact Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner sklitsner@ots.org.il