For the first time, a woman will lead an Israeli Orthodox synagogue April 29, 2021 12:35 pm Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis will be the spiritual leader of Shirat Hatamar, an Orthodox synagogue in the West Bank settlement of Efrat. (Screenshot)
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(JTA) A woman will be the spiritual leader of an Israeli Orthodox synagogue for the first time.
Shirat Hatamar, a congregation in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, elected Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis, 40, as spiritual leader on Monday with the support of 83% of its membership.
“I truly hold in my heart all of the women, across all of the generations, who are greater than me, and smarter than me, and fear heaven and are students of Torah that didn’t receive the recognition and love that I have received,” she said in a speech this week. “I have a congregation that is a group of people men, women and children that come together to serve God in happiness, simplicity and prayer.”
Rinat to Present Seven-Part ‘Shev Shemateta 101’ Series Dealing With Rabbinic Decision-Making By Pearl Markovitz | April 29, 2021
Scenario No. 1: Every week the eruv in Town A is checked at 12:48 p.m., and announced to the community as intact. What if between 12:48 p.m. and the onset of Shabbat, the eruv was severed by the wind? Do we spread the word?
Scenario No. 2: The keilim mikvah in Town B had 40 seah of water at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning. What if it was discovered that at 6 p.m., the mikvah only contained 30 seah of water, below the required level? Do we make an announcement that the people who used the mikvah at 8 a.m. should come back to tovel their dishes again?
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Screen capture from video of Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis speaking to her community after she was appointed as the spiritual leader of the Shirat Hatamar synagogue in Efrat, April, 2021. (YouTube)
An Orthodox synagogue in the West Bank settlement of Efrat has appointed a woman to be the community’s sole spiritual leader, the first time that a woman has held such a position in an Israeli Orthodox community.
Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis was nominated with the support of 83 percent of the Shirat Hatamar synagogue’s voting members earlier this week, the synagogue announced in a statement Tuesday.
Remembering Englewood s Mordecai (Morty) Katz, z”l By Rabbi Kenneth Brander | April 08, 2021
The Jewish community has lost a gentle giant with the passing of Mordecai Katz, of blessed memory. Better known among both colleagues and friends as Mordy, he was a lifelong champion of Jewish education, working alongside his wife, Dr. Monique (Nicky) Katz, may she be blessed with a long life, to support key institutions in today’s Jewish world. Morty was a visionary of exceptional intelligence, someone who knew how to think strategically and turn dreams into reality. An engineer in the aerospace industry, Morty understood that the task of the Jewish people is to link heaven and earth. He was remarkably modest, especially considering both his tremendous professional accomplishments and his enormous impact on the global Jewish community.