Ohr Torah Stone (OTS) ( he, אור תורה סטון) is an international

Modern Orthodox Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosoph ...

movement that aims to develop

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

life, learning, and leadership. The organization is led by Rabbi Dr.

Kenneth Brander Kenneth Brander ( he, כתריאל ברנדר; born April 18, 1962) is an American rabbi who is president and Rosh HaYeshiva of the Ohr Torah Stone network of institutions. He is a member of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Rabbinic Ca ...

. In 1983 OTS was founded by Rabbi Dr.

Shlomo Riskin Shlomo Riskin (born May 28, 1940) is an Orthodox rabbi, and the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he led for 20 years; founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the Israeli- ...

. As of 2020 OTS included 27 educational institutions under its auspices. The organization also includes a network of 300-plus emissaries who serve in positions of spiritual and educational leadership across the globe in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. OTS has initiated numerous programs in the realm of women's leadership and empowerment, leadership training, Jewish outreach, and social action, which have received both national and international acclaim for their groundbreaking nature.Isi Leibler, "The Incredible Rabbi Shlomo Riskin," The Jerusalem Post, Thursday, March 3, 2011, OTS has stated that its primary guiding principle is to ensure the accessibility of Judaism to every Jew—particularly addressing populations which had been previously marginalized, disenfranchised or alienated.

Jewish women's empowerment

OTS's programs for women have opened doors in the realm of Jewish Orthodox female scholarship and leadership that had previously been shut to the entire female population. OTS started the first school to teach post-

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

women

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

on a high level. OTS’s women’s college features the largest women’s

beit midrash A ''beth midrash'' ( he, בית מדרש, or ''beis medrash'', ''beit midrash'', pl. ''batei midrash'' "House of Learning") is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall." It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth knes ...

tudy hallin Jewish history. The college has produced female leaders of Jewish communities worldwide, including the first female to officially serve as the director of a

rabbinical court A beit din ( he, בית דין, Bet Din, house of judgment, , Ashkenazic: ''beis din'', plural: batei din) is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel. Today, it ...

. OTS's women's college developed a program specifically for women with special needs. The curriculum allows participants to acquire both learning and vocational skills, build independence, and improve self-esteem while expanding their love of

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

, Israel, and the Jewish people. The program had proven so successful that in 2017, a parallel program was established for young men. Another OTS program enables religious women to serve in the

Israeli army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branc ...

. Previously, Israeli women were forced to choose between service to their country and an observant lifestyle. By way of the program, female participants are inducted as a group and strengthened by intense study before, during, and after their service. OTS also opened the first school in the world to train, certify, and ordain women as heter hora’ah, or "permission to make Halachic decisions," for service in the rabbinical courts. Only because of OTS’s appeal to the

Israeli Supreme Court The Supreme Court (, ''Beit HaMishpat HaElyon''; ar, المحكمة العليا) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme C ...

did women win the legal right to practice in the courts–an arena that was previously open only to men. The school then opened a Legal Aid Center and Hotline for Israeli women who are agunot (The

agunah An ''agunah'' ( he, עגונה, plural: agunot (); literally "anchored" or "chained") is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by ''halakha'' (Jewish law). The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey ...

is a woman literally “chained” to a dead or abusive marriage whose husband refuses to grant her a Jewish writ of divorce) and need free advice and legal representation in matters pertaining to the process of obtaining a religious divorce.

Contemporary Jewish leadership

Ohr Torah Stone’s Rabbinical Seminary prepares rabbis to be both fluent in secular learning as well as the

. The curriculum is geared toward contemporary concerns as well as Jewish law and legal texts. At the same time, the OTS Educators Institute comprehensively trains educators to teach Judaic Studies in both Orthodox and non-Orthodox state and community schools across Israel and the Diaspora. An additional OTS yeshiva is geared toward young men both with and without previous yeshiva backgrounds from North America,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and

. Hundreds of OTS-trained teachers and spiritual leaders have served in communities spanning the globe. Many of the OTS graduates have joined the ranks of OTS-trained Jewish Cultural Facilitators who provide formal and informal Jewish education for Israelis of all ages and backgrounds. This initiative works in conjunction with Israeli Community Centers. Media coverage has reported that these facilitators actively promote Jewish values, national unity, and heritage awareness in a non-coercive environment.

OTS high schools

OTS has established 6 modern Orthodox high schools within the Jerusalem and Gush Etzion regions. All of these high schools offer official matriculation and have been awarded the recognition of excellence from the Israeli Ministry of Education.

OTS around the world

Each year, OTS sends spiritual and educational leaders to serve as emissaries in Jewish communities all over the world. These emissaries are active in

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

s, campuses and schools, and Jewish communities across the globe.

Schools and programs

Programs for men

* Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Rabbinical Seminary * Robert M. Beren College * Robert M. Beren Machanaim

Hesder Hesder ( he, הסדר "arrangement"; also Yeshivat Hesder ) is an Israeli yeshiva program which combines advanced Talmudic studies with military service in the Israel Defense Forces, usually within a Religious Zionist framework. The program allo ...

Yeshiva * OTS Metivta, Carmiel * Elaine And Norm Brodsky Darkaynu Program

Programs for women

Midreshet Lindenbaum Midreshet Lindenbaum (), originally named Michlelet Bruria, is a midrasha in Talpiot, Jerusalem. It counts among its alumnae many of the teachers at Matan, Nishmat, Pardes and other women's and co-ed yeshivas in Israel and abroad. History Michl ...

College for Women, Jerusalem * Midreshet Lindenbaum-Lod * Midreshet Lindenbaum-Matat, Carmiel * Yad La’isha: The Monica Dennis Goldberg Legal Aid Center And Hotline For Women

Emissary programs

* Beren-Amiel Educational Emissaries * Claudia Cohen Women Educators Institute * Maarava – Rabbinic Emissaries to Sephardic Communities * Straus-Amiel Rabbinic Emissaries * OTS Amiel BaKehila * Ohr Torah Nidchei Yisrael * Yachad Program for Jewish Identity

Junior high and high schools

* Derech Avot Junior High and High School for Boys, Efrat * Jacob Sapirstein Junior High and High School For Boys, Ramot, Jerusalem * Jennie Sapirstein Junior High and High School For Girls, Ramot, Jerusalem * Neveh Channah High School for Girls, In Memory Of Anna Ehrman, Gush Etzion * Neveh Shmuel Yeshiva High School for Boys, In Memory Of Samuel Pinchas Ehrman, Efrat * Oriya Girls' High School, Gush Etzion * Ann Belsky Moranis Program For Arts And Drama

Conversion programs

* Conversion Institute for Spanish Speakers - Efrat, Israel * Jewish Learning Center - New York

International programs

* Hertog Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding And Cooperation (CJCUC) * OMEK - A Transformative Learning and Touring Experience in Israel

References

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1983 Jewish organizations based in Israel Educational organizations based in Israel Jewish education in Israel Education in Israel International educational organizations Jewish movements Jewish educational institutions Jewish educational organizations Orthodox Jewish educational institutions 1983 establishments in Israel