Dina Najman (b.) is the rabbi of the Kehilah of Riverdale, a synagogue in

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, founded in 2014, which describes itself as "an Orthodox Jewish Congregation dedicated to creating a serious and meaningful tefilah for our kehilah, committed to learning Torah and living by its values and seeking to promote individual and communal acts of chesed (kindness)" and as "supporting spiritual and lay leadership irrespective of gender."

Career

Najman's father Chaim was a cantor, who served in Omaha and, starting in 1979, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek (Michigan). Her mother Sherry Najman was a teacher in the

Detroit public schools Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) is a school district that serves Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, and high school students in Highland Park, Michigan. The district, which replaced the original Detroit Public Schools (DPS) in 2016, ...

. Her siblings include Hindy Najman, a Jewish studies scholar. In 2006, Najman became the first Orthodox woman appointed as rabbinic leader of a synagogue, when she became the Rosh Kehilah (lit. community leader) of Kehilat Orach Eliezer in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Though not officially affiliated, the synagogue served in effect as Modern Orthodox At that time, Najman insisted on a gender-neutral title. She was educated at Jerusalem Michlala,

Stern College for Women The Stern College for Women (SCW) is the undergraduate women's college of arts and sciences of Yeshiva University. It is located at the university's Israel Henry Beren Campus in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. The college provides program ...

Drisha Institute The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education is a center for advanced Jewish learning located on the Upper West Side of New York City. Though initially founded to promote advanced scholarship for women, it has since expanded to offer text-based learnin ...

, and Nishmat (midrasha), where she served as a "shoel u’meishiv" — someone to whom students can turn for help in their learning. She is a

bioethicist Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethics, ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biolo ...

certified by the Bioethics and Medical Humanities program run jointly by

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

. Due to her mastery of the arcana of the field, she remains in demand as a lecturer on bioethics and Jewish law for communities all over the world. Najman was ordained by Rabbi

Daniel Sperber Daniel Sperber (Hebrew: דניאל שפרבר; born 4 November 1940) is a British-born Israeli academic and Orthodox Jewish rabbi. He is a professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and an expert in classical philology, history of Je ...

and has been a Senior Rabbinic Fellow at

Shalom Hartman Institute Shalom Hartman Institute is a Jewish research and education institute based in Jerusalem, that offers pluralistic Jewish thought and education to scholars, rabbis, educators, and Jewish community leaders in Israel and North America. The institu ...

. She is also the head of the

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aram ...

department at the

SAR Academy Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, better known by the acronym, SAR Academy, is a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish day school. The school is located in the Riverdale section of the New York City borough of the Bronx. Its name de ...

Phyllis Chesler Phyllis Chesler (born October 1, 1940) is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY). She is a renowned second-wave feminist psychologist and the author of ...

said of Najman, "She's a rebbe, a Talmudist, the way she gets right to the point in so few words." Dina Najman was among the few Orthodox

women rabbis Women rabbis and Torah scholars are Jews, Jewish women who have received formal ''semikhah'' (rabbinic ordination) as rabbis or are recognized for their studies and contributions to Judaism, Jewish religious tradition, respectively. The ordination ...

to have received private ordination in the Orthodox Jewish context before the institutional change that resulted in the founding of

Yeshivat Maharat Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx, New York, which is the first Orthodox-affiliated yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word ''Maharat'' () is a Hebrew acronym for phrase ''manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Tora ...

. Other women in her position include Mimi Feigelson (ordained in 1994) and Haviva Ner-David (ordained in 2006).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Najman, Dina Living people Rabbis from New York City Year of birth missing (living people) Orthodox women rabbis 21st-century American rabbis

Career

See also

References