IJII

Shalom. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday, and wish you a happy Hanukkah in advance.

We now have about 150 members in our University Network, with students from throughout the US as well as several other countries.  Our group continues to grow, and we hope you'll invite your fellow students to sign up for the University Network by going to our website jewishideas.org

We have set up a University Network discussion group. This will give members of the University Network the opportunity of sharing ideas, getting to know each other, networking. This discussion group is only open to members of the University Network of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

To subscribe to the University Network discussion list, please send an email to our automated system at universitynetwork-subscribe@lists.jewishideas.org.  Please first be sure you are registered as a student on our website (www.jewishideas.org) as we we will only approve subscription requests for those who are. All discussion is email based, and anyone can create or reply to new topics.  You will be able to leave the discussion list at any time. The IJII reserves the right to remove anyone from the discussion list at its discretion.

We hope this will prove to be an interesting, valuable and enjoyable resource for members of the University Network.  Please sign up soon, and feel free to share your ideas.  

I would much like to hear your views on the following topic.  The International Rabbinic Fellowship, a new modern Orthodox rabbinic association founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss and me, had a conference last month. About 60 rabbis from throughout the US attended, as well as rabbis from Canada and Colombia. The group reached a consensus that it would be appropriate to include women members, even though they do not have, and don't have the opportunity to have, semikha.  A committee was tasked with coming up with suitable criteria for membership.  Some rabbis were concerned that admitting non-rabbi women into the IRF will undermine our credibility as an Orthodox rabbinic body, and will impede our efforts in such areas as conversion to Judaism, the agunah issue, Jewish education etc. What do you think?  How do you envision religious leadership for modern Orthodoxy 10 years from now?