College Learning Fellowship
We are excited to open applications for our third cohort of the Maharat Collegiate Learning Fellowship, which will run during the 2025-2026 academic year. This fellowship is intended for women who have significant experience learning gemara in its original language and from the daf. Maharat is offering two course options, both on Zoom:
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A weekly halakha shiur, taught by Rabba Amy Newman, about the human side of halakhic issues. This course will consider cases where extra-halakhic concerns are integrated into the process of p'sak halakha to understand how external issues might change the way we think about halakhic rulings. All sources will be presented in their original, and is intended for students who feel comfortable navigating texts without access to a translation. This class will meet weekly on Zoom on Tuesday nights from 7:30-8:30 PM eastern time. Classes will begin in September and end in late April, with breaks for chagim and winter break.
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A weekly advanced gemara shiur, taught by Dr. Rachel Rosenthal, which will focus on the close reading of gemara, Rashi, and Tosafot. This class will be learning the eighth perek of Sanhedrin. It is intended for students who have extensive experience learning gemara and rishonim in their original language and will assume pre-existing proficiency in the language and structure of the gemara. This class will meet weekly on Zoom on Monday nights from 7:30-8:30 PM eastern time. Classes will begin in September and end in late April, with breaks for chagim and winter break.
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Additionally, all fellows are invited to join the Collegiate Intensive that will take place in the Maharat Beit Midrash in Riverdale, NY the week of January 5 or January 12, 2026, with domestic travel and housing provided by Maharat.
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Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until Thursday, June 9, 2025.
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If you have any questions about the application, application process, and/or the College Gemara fellowship, please email rrosenthal@yeshivatmaharat.org.
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Meet the 2024-2025 College Gemara Fellows
Rutie Afriat is from Los Angeles California. Last year, she studied at Midreshet Amudim and will be studying Biology at UCLA this year. Rutie loves that learning allows her to participate in a chain of mesorah that connects her to her ancestors.
Mayah Bernstein studied at Midreshet Amudim in 5784, where she discovered her passion for Jewish scholarship and further developed her identity as a young Jewish woman. She is from West Palm Beach, Florida and grew up in a secular Jewish home. Mayah is grateful for her parents' enthusiasm towards her Talmud Torah education and is looking forward to continuing her learning with Maharat and YU Stern.
Esther Eisenstat is from Riverdale, NY. She is a senior at Brandeis University and is majoring in Economics.
Neima Fax is a senior at Brandeis University, majoring in Near Eastern and Judaic studies with a minor in History. She feels lucky to live in an age where she has complete access to Torah learning, and she is inspired to take advantage of it. Neima feels that the more Torah she learns,, the more she understands about herself and the world around her. Neima has also found that her deepest relationships are with the people in her life with whom she has shared an open sefer.
Devorah Feder is from Sharon, MA. She studies anthropology, art, and ASL at Yale University. Devorah loves the intellectual challenge of decoding a daf of gemara and peeling back its socio-historical layers.
Ellia Ferneau is from Potomac, Maryland. She is a freshman at the University of Maryland studying Neurobiology and Physiology. She hopes to pursue a future in medicine as well as a future as a yoetzet halakha. She loves how you can learn the same piece of Torah many times, and each time, add new depth.
Miriam Goldberger graduated from SAR High School a year ago and spent this past year learning at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She will be starting at Harvard this year. In her free time Miriam enjoys cooking, spending time with friends and family, traveling, and reading. Miriam loves learning because she feels that it is the foundation for trying to understand how and why we follow halakha and live observant lives. She also thinks that it forces her to think critically and exposes her to new ways of thought. Miriam's favorite thing to learn is gemara and she looks forward to participating in the Maharat College Gemara fellowship!
Emily Grodski is from Melbourne, Australia. She is studying for a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University, majoring in History. Emily loves learning as it is a way to actively engage with our past while carving a path for the future.
Ellie Klibaner-Schiff is from Newton, MA. She studies Human Evolutionary Biology and Global Health at Harvard University. She loves how Jewish learning expands her perspective, facilitates complex understanding of ideas that expand as they are studied, and allows her to connect with Jewish tradition across history.
Sophia Kremer is from New York City and a senior at Brown University studying Economics. Before heading to Brown, She studied at Midreshet Torah V'Avodah. She loves learning Gemara because of the challenge of dissecting machloket.
Chava Nagel is from Teaneck, New Jersey and is a sophomore at Barnard College. She hopes to major in Neuroscience and minor in Creative Writing. She loves the complex characters in the Tanakh and the many layers of meaning there are to the text. She also loves the idea that gemara is just the very human pursuit of trying to decipher the practical laws from the text and that the process can be messy.
Nava Oberstein is from Riverdale, New York. Last year, she studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem. She loves learning because it feels like a tangible gateway to our ancestors learning and to their experiences as Jews throughout history.
Sarah Papernik grew up on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. She studied at Midreshet Amudim and went to SAR High School. She loves learning Tosafot, especially when he contradicts Rashi. She hopes to study Computer Engineering in college.
Josephine Schizer is from New York and is a senior at Harvard studying Neuroscience. She loves Jewish learning because of the emphasis on asking questions over finding answers.
Hannah Shapiro from Hollywood Florida. Last year, she was on a gap year at Midreshet Amudim, and she will be attending Brandeis to study Journalism and Theater this year. She loves learning Torah because it fosters a deep connection to thousands of years of Jewish history and gives insight into the halakhic process and how we arrived at the Judaism we practice today. Torah is a giant mystery of which she gets to progressively uncover more layers as she advances in her learning.
Danelle Tuchman is from Palo Alto, California and is a rising senior at Columbia, studying Computer Science and Dance. She loves learning Gemara because she appreciates the logical processes interwoven with tangential stories. She enjoys decoding the stories to better understand the historical, logical, and spiritual connotations to the laws being discussed.