Four synagogues in New Jersey—Congregation Shomrei Torah and Darchei Noam, both in Fair Lawn; Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck; and Suburban Torah in Livingston—are among 16 synagogues nationwide that have been funded with $5,000 Women’s Initiative Challenge Grants from the Orthodox Union. Officials said this initial round of grant giving is part of an effort to empower women with the opportunities to develop their own models for learning and leadership, based on what they believe the women in their own communities want and need.
In recent years, the OU’s women members have sought a greater voice in Torah scholarship and learning; in more liberal movements of Judaism, passion for Jewish learning has, in recent decades, translated into women pursuing the rabbinate. However, for OU shuls, such approaches do not include women serving as clergy. To bridge what was seen as a gap in the array of leadership roles available for women, last year the organization launched a women’s initiative designed to provide a multitude of opportunities for women in OU communities in the many ways that are acceptable in Jewish law.
Adina Shmidman, the founding director of the department, told The Jewish Link that the OU initially planned to make 10 grants, but was “bowled over” by the detailed, erudite applications, of which the organization received 93 in total.
Shmidman shared that the women who were passionate about their ideas, who got together and built their program proposals, did so with energy and care. “The Challenge Grant gives us the opportunity to hear from communities—what they need, what they want to see on the ground—and actually address those needs directly,” she said.
Rebbetzin Sara Markowitz, who was on the team from Congregation Shomrei Torah in Fair Lawn, expressed her thoughts on their winning grant. “At various stages in life, women find themselves being pulled in different directions, but what stays constant is the wish to be connected spiritually and socially within the Jewish community. We proposed Shomrei Torah’s Women’s Institute of Learning and Leadership, which is a center for women and girls to engage in meaningful spiritual growth as well as gain and pass on skills from generation to generation,” she said. “This new initiative will provide programming and learning opportunities that reach across the spectrum of women and girls in our communities and leverage technology to support broader accessibility to synagogue resources,” she added.
Rabbi Shalom Baum of Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck shared his shul’s broad view on winning the grant. “Throughout the years, we have looked for gaps in our Torah offerings and we have successfully developed learning programs for retirees, people who spend much of their professional lives traveling and other innovative projects,” said Rabbi Baum. “With this generous and thoughtful grant, we will begin to fill a void for very busy women and students who yearn to use their evenings to continue to develop their Avodat Hashem.” Keter Torah plans to create a summer women’s beit midrash in halacha and Gemara twice a week for both beginners and advanced learners, pairing women who may be students or professionals in chevrutas and offering shiurim on an array of topics pertaining to women.
Congregation Darchei Noam of Fair Lawn is creating the Women’s Professional Mentorship Program to create a mutually supportive network of Orthodox professional women of all ages. The goal of this program is to offer a framework within which women of the community can share tools and knowledge with each other, develop practical workplace skills, and provide unique professional development opportunities that are sensitive to the needs of Orthodox women in the workplace.
Suburban Torah of Livingston plans to implement the Women’s Center for Inspired Judaism, a hub of inspirational Jewish learning and various activities for the women in the community. The physical space of the center, equipped with a coffee bar, multimedia capabilities and couches and chairs, is designed to create a flexible, trendy, comfortable area that will host specialized programming for women and girls in a relaxed, inviting environment. Planned programs include mother-daughter learning, latte and learning, educational cooking classes, activities for seniors and programming geared to middle-school and teenage girls.
Shmidman noted that the $5,000 grants come with a small caveat: to check in with the OU at the beginning, middle and completion of the project, so that the OU can learn how the project is going and learn from the synagogue’s experiences. “They have a responsibility to report back. We want the projects to be duplicable or scalable in other communities. Once these programs are piloted, they can be offered widely in other communities so that they too can benefit from the wisdom and experience of these successful initiatives,” she said.
“Part of the grant, too, is for each synagogue to agree to be an advisor synagogue to other synagogues that are interested in replicating the program,” Shmidman added.
While not all 93 of the grants were able to be funded, Shmidman said that should not be seen as the end; or that the other projects proposed were not good or important. Some of the applications were too similar to one another, and it didn’t make sense to pilot too many projects of the same type. “I know for some communities, they might see that their grant wasn’t chosen, but I hope it gives them a jump start and have them turn to their funders to make their project happen,” she added.
Shmidman noted that both the amount and the quality of submissions were noteworthy. “Ninety-three is an amazing number. That’s not 93 people. That’s 93 groups of people who sat down and worked at this. They were well thought out, well prepared, collaborative. It’s super-exciting,” she said.
While the grants were entirely merit-based, the OU noted post-selection that the grants reflected national and hashkafic (observance-level) diversity. “We were trying to be as broad as the OU is,” she noted.
The OU received 31 applications from New York and New Jersey; six from California; two from Canada; and single grants from states including Maryland, Florida, Michigan and Ohio. The winning synagogues were Lincoln Square Synagogue, New York, New York; Young Israel of Oceanside, Oceanside, New York; Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation of Baltimore; Young Israel of Southfield, Southfield, Michigan; Young Israel of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio; Young Israel of Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Congregation Agudath Sholom, Stamford, Connecticut; United Orthodox Synagogues, Houston, Texas; Beth Jacob Congregation of Oakland, Oakland, California; Westwood Kehilla, Los Angeles, California; Keneseth Beth Israel, Richmond, Virginia; Young Israel Toco Hills, Atlanta, Georgia; Suburban Torah, Livingston, New Jersey; Congregation Keter Torah, Teaneck, New Jersey; Congregation Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn, New Jersey; and Congregation Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
