2024-2025
Rabbanit Leah Sarna
Rabbanit Sarna is an award-winning Jewish educator who is passionate about building intergenerational community around Torah and Mitzvot. She also currently serves as a member of
Applications for the Third Cohort of the Devorah Scholars Program Being Accepted Now,
Through December 1, 2023!
Now Accepting Applications for
Devorah Scholars Cohort 3!
JOFA’s Devorah Scholars Program provides funding for Orthodox synagogues in North America to hire their first paid full-time or part-time Orthodox women in spiritual leadership roles.
This is the first program of its kind to meet a growing need for women’s leadership in Orthodox spaces, where Devorah Scholars fulfill a range of needs such as pastoral counseling, delivering sermons, leading rituals, enhancing education for youth and adults, and much more.
The Devorah Scholars program is made possible with the generous support of Micah Philanthropies, Ann and Jeremy Pava, Trustees.
The Devorah Scholars Program seeks to increase paid spiritual leadership positions for Orthodox women in Orthodox synagogues. Orthodox synagogues may apply for a minimum grant of $10,000 for a part-time position (10-15 hours/week), or a maximum grant of $33,000 for a full-time position. Congregations will be required to supplement a 2:1 match of the grant amount received. Synagogues that receive grants will be evaluated after the first year in order to guarantee the second year of funding.
Synagogues must provide a job description to be considered as part of the application process. Applicants advancing to the next round will be invited to have their current clergy and president of the board interview with the Jofa selection committee.
Required components of the position include (but are not limited to):
- Deliver congregational sermons
- Provide shiurim
- Drashot to the broader community
- Pastoral care and counseling
- Youth and adult education
- Participate in cohort-building experiences, including professional development workshops
For applicant congregations: Eligible Devorah Scholars include (but are not limited to) graduates of the following educational institutions:
- Drisha Institute
- Nishmat (Yoetzet Halacha program)
- Ohr Torah Stone
- Yeshivat Maharat
- Yeshiva University (GPATS)
Congregations will be required to complete a mid-grant and end-of-grant report.
Key dates for those deadlines will be provided by Jofa soon. Return to this page for more updated information.
For Interested Devorah Scholar Candidates:
Jofa is collecting information from qualified women who are interested in serving as Devorah Scholars. If you or someone you know would like to be considered to apply for a Devorah Scholar position, please complete this Devorah Scholar Candidate Interest Form. Jofa will share candidate information with interested synagogue leadership who may reach out to the candidate directly.
For more information or questions, please contact us at jofa@jofa.org.
Devorah Scholars Program Testimonials:
Rabba Amalia Haas, who served as a Devorah Scholar at Congregation Beth Sholom in Providence, Rhode Island, expressed: "Being a Devorah Scholar has shaped my development as a leader in ways that are impossible to overstate. Teaching my congregation, comforting and counseling congregants seeking pastoral care, having congregants approach me to describe the impact of my leadership on their spiritual lives, has allowed me to fully step into my authority as a rabba."
"As we've witnessed firsthand, the ability to facilitate and model high-level female Torah leadership has facilitated increased religious engagement, learning, and growth in our community,” says Rabbi Barry Dolinger, whose synagogue Congregation Beth Sholom hired one of the first Devorah Scholars. “We're confident this will allow our synagogue to better meet members' thirst for more, relevant, high-quality Torah learning and spiritual engagement."
Ruthie Braffman Shulman from the first cohort of Devorah Scholars reflected, “There are so many topics that arise in the congregational setting as well as in pastoral care surrounding infertility, mikvah, and women’s roles that having a woman’s perspective and voice is vital.”
Meet the Scholars
2024-2025
2024-2025
Rabbanit Tanya Farber
Rabbanit Tanya Farber is a Torah teacher with many years of experience teaching students of all ages, from kids to adults! Reb Tanya also worked for a decade with adults
2024-2025
Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty
Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty is Rabbanit at Congregation Ramath Orah on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Mindy received a masters in Biblical and Talmudic
2022-2024
2022-2024
Rabbanit Atara Lindenbaum
Rabbanit Atara Lindenbaum is the Associate Rabbanit at Hebrew Institute of White Plains. Rabbanit Atara received ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, after previously completing the Tanakh Educator’s
2022-2024
Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn
Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn is a Board Certified Chaplain at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center where she specializes in Palliative Care, Critical Care, and Emergency
2022-2024
Rabbanit Yael Keller
Rabbanit Yael Keller serves as Rabbanit-in-Residence at Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob Synagogue in Illinois. Prior to that she worked as Rabbinic Intern at Ohev Sholom –
2020-2022
2020-2022
Ruthie Braffman Shulman
Ruthie Braffman Shulman served as a Devorah Scholar at the United Orthodox Synagogue in Houston, TX. There she held the role of Director of Education and
2020-2022
Rabba Amalia Haas
Rabba Amalia Haas served as Director of Spiritual Engagement at Congregation Beth Sholom in Providence, Rhode Island, from 2021-22, in the first cohort of Devorah Scholars.
2020-2022
Rabbanit Jennifer Kotzker Geretz
Rabbanit Jennifer Kotzker Geretz joined the spiritual leadership team at Netivot Shalom in Teaneck, NJ, in Spring 2020 as a Devorah Scholar. Working with Rabbi Nati
2020-2022
Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter
Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter is a Devorah Scholar and the founder and spiritual leader of the South Philadelphia Shtiebel, a modern orthodox community. Through prayer, learning
2020-2022
Rabbanit Avital Engelberg
Rabbanit Avital Engelberg is the Director of Maharat H-HARETZ in Israel, and serves as Ramit at Midreshet Ein HaNatziv. She also facilitates Orthodox weddings outside the
Devorah Scholars Cohort 3: FAQ
- Click here to access the grant application.
- Key dates for the application process will be provided by Jofa soon. Return to this page for more updated information.
- Synagogue leadership will be interviewed by the Jofa selection committee and must provide a job description subject to approval.
- Applicants are currently limited to North American congregations.
- Key dates for the grant will be provided by Jofa soon. Return to this page for more updated information.
- Orthodox synagogues may apply for a 2:1 matching grant of $10,000 to $33,000 per year for up to two years of funding to support hiring a Devorah Scholar.
- Congregations will be required to supplement at a 2:1 ratio, with a minimum of an additional $20,000, and up to $66,000, per year.
Devorah Scholars may hold either full or part-time positions. Part-time positions require a minimum of 10-15 hours of congregational work per week.
Synagogues that receive grants will be evaluated after the first year in order to guarantee the second year of funding.
Eligible applicants to be a Devorah Scholar include (but are not limited to) graduates of the following educational institutions:
- Drisha
- Nishmat (Yoetzet Halacha program)
- Ohr Torah Stone
- Yeshivat Maharat
- Yeshiva University (GPATS)
- Yes! You can apply without first identifying your hire. Please adhere to the same timeline.
- Jofa can help circulate your job description within our network. However, we cannot guarantee finding someone to fill the position.
- Jofa is collecting information from qualified women interested in serving as a Devorah Scholar. If you or someone you know would like to be considered to apply for a Devorah Scholar position, please complete this Devorah Scholar Candidate Interest Form. Jofa will share candidate information with interested synagogue leadership who may reach out to the candidate directly.
Congregations will be required to complete a mid-grant and end-of-grant report.
In addition to her congregational role and responsibilities, what else is a Devorah Scholar required to participate in as part of her cohort experience?
- Devorah Scholars will be required to write for a Jofa publication (such as an article for the Jofa Journal, Shema Bekolah, or a blog posting) and participate in one of Jofa’s public events (webinar, synagogue event, conference).
- Devorah Scholars will be required to participate in a monthly professional development cohort that will be organized by Jofa.
- Devorah Scholars will participate in a cohort experience with other Devorah Scholars and will benefit from professional development programming.
- Devorah Scholars will benefit from connecting with Jofa leadership and other stakeholders.
- You can hear directly from the president of Micah Philanthropies and select participants of the first Devorah Scholar cohort by watching this video from Jofa’s March 2021 virtual conference.
- Click here to see Devorah Scholars highlighted as Slingshot’s “10 to Watch” featured organization for November 2022.
- We can connect you with current or past Devorah Scholars and/or synagogue leadership
Please contact Dr. Sarah Kranz-Ciment at Sarah@jofa.org
