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Rebbetzin Rifki Freundlich

Rifki Freundlich is the rebbetzin at Congregation TBDJ in Montreal where she has lived with her husband, Rabbi Yechezkel, and their children for the past three years. After teaching kallahs and guiding women of all backgrounds in taharat hamishpacha observance for seventeen years in Atlanta and Montreal, Rifki completed the curriculum of study through Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center to become a Yoetzet Halacha. Rifki has also taught Tanach to high school girls for the past ten years and currently teaches at Hebrew Academy of Montreal.

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Yoetzet Halacha Dr. Deena Zimmerman

Deena Zimmerman MD

Dr. Deena Zimmerman is a pediatrician with a lifelong love of Judaic Studies. Graduate of Yale University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and one of Nishmat’s first certified yoatzot halacha. Deena is the author of A Lifetime Companion of Jewish Family Life, Mi Dor L Dor: Jewish Legal Medical and Ethical Perspectives on Genetics, and numerous medical and halachic articles. She also director of yoatzot.org, Nishmat’s Women Health and Halacha Websites.

Shana Yocheved Schacter
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Shana Yocheved Schacter, LCSW, Psychotherapist

Shana Yocheved Schacter

Shana Yocheved Schacter is a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and Teaneck, NJ. She treats individuals with anxiety and/or depression as well as those with relationship and work issues.
Yocheved treats couples, focusing on effective communication as well as emotional, physical and sexual intimacy  issues.  She consults to Yeshiva University and the RCA on leadership training for Smicha students, Rabbis and Rebbetzins. Yocheved is also a consultant for the U.S. Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program in the United States.

Dr. Bat-Sheva Maslow, MCTR, FACOG
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Dr. Bat-Sheva Maslow, MCTR, FACOG

Dr. Bat-Sheva Maslow, MCTR, FACOG

Dr. Bat-Sheva Lerner Maslow is an infertility specialist who frequently lectures and writes on topics ranging from egg donation to contraception. Dr. Maslow particularly enjoys discussing areas where halacha and Jewish thought overlap with reproduction and science. She also serves as a medical adviser on questions of hilchot niddah and is the new Director of Medical Curriculum for the US Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program.

Dr. Maslow graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College with a BA in History before attending the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. There she received an MD with distinction and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. Dr. Maslow completed residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania and sub-specialty training in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the University of Connecticut. Her works have been published in nationally recognized medical journals and she has presented at many large medical conferences across the United States. She is currently in private practice at Gold Coast IVF in Woodbury, NY.

Rachel Hercman, LCSW, Psychotherapist, Maze Women’s Health
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Rachel Hercman, LCSW, Psychotherapist

Rachel Hercman, LCSW, Psychotherapist, Maze Women’s Health

Rachel Hercman, LCSW is a psychotherapist and writer with a focus on relationship and sexual issues, women’s health, and trauma. She works with has a private practice in Manhattan where she provides therapy and consultation to individuals and couples. Rachel loves working with communities on creating conversation around relevant emotional health topics and she regularly presents to educators, students, mental health professionals,and clergy. Rachel is passionate about kallah teacher enrichment as a vehicle to systemic change in community attitudes towards relationships, and she looks forward to learning and collaborating to another great course.

Yoetzet Halacha Atara Eis, NISHMAT’s Miriam Glaubach Center
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Yoetzet Halacha Atara Eis, Director, NISHMAT’s Miriam Glaubach Center

Yoetzet Halacha Atara Eis, NISHMAT’s Miriam Glaubach Center

Atara Eis is Director of NISHMAT’s Miriam Glaubach Center’s U.S. Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program, and a Mechanechet at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim. Atara holds a B.A. in Judaic Studies from Yeshiva University’s Stern College, an Associate Degree in Music, as well as an M.S. from Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education.

After completing the YU Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies for Women, Atara studied at NISHMAT’s Keren Ariel Halachic Institute in Jerusalem to become a Yoetzet Halacha. Previously, Atara taught at Midreshet Lindenbaum and Kohelet Yeshiva High School in Philadelphia where she served as the Israel Guidance Counselor. She served as a Yoetzet Halacha in Philadelphia, at a consortium of Manhattan synagogues, and previously in Silver Spring, MD. In 2009, Atara was selected by The Jewish Week as one of “36 under 36,” and in 2010, she was a recipient of Kohelet Yeshiva High School’s Distinguished Educators Award.

Atara and her husband Rafi live with their family in Efrat, Israel.

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Rabbi Kenneth Auman, Dean, Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center’s U.S. Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program; Mara D’atra, Young Israel of Flatbush

Rabbi Kenneth Auman, Dean, Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center’s U.S. Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program; Mara D’atra, Young Israel of Flatbush

Rabbi Kenneth Auman is the rabbi of the Young Israel of Flatbush, having served there since 1984, teaches Jewish Studies at Stern College, and is the Dean of the Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center for the training of Yoatzot Halacha in the United States.

Rabbi Auman received semicha yoreh yoreh and yadin yadin from RIETS, and completed an MA in Jewish History at Bernard Revel Graduate School. He is a former president of both the Rabbinical Council of America and the Vaad HaRabanim of Flatbush. He co-edited the 1996 volume The Prenuptial Agreement – Halakhic and Pastoral Considerations.