Sarah Segal-Katz

Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz holds an MA in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University (Revivim program). Certificates as Rabbanit from: Beit Morasha, Rabbanut Yisraelit at the Hartman Institute. She founded the Gluya Center (2010) and the Gluya Magazine website (since 2020), an online knowledge center featuring over 3,000 texts on Jewish life. Since October 7th, the site has published hundreds of coping resources and multiple anthologies.

With fifteen years of experience in rabbinic work, she integrates public initiatives and writing with in-person counselling, guidance for life cycle ceremonies, workshops in Jewish creative writing, and lecturing on halakha, religious feminism, life cycle rituals, poetics, and religiosity.

She believes in learning that leads to action, a rabbinate rooted in reality, and a life full of curiosity, initiative, and justice. She lives by the principle:

״גדול תלמוד, שהתלמוד מביא לידי מעשה״.
“Great is study, for study leads to action.”

In this spirit, she has helped petition Israel's Supreme Court against a gender discriminatory rabbinate, co-founded Forum Advot to pioneer discussions about mikveh rights in Israel, and co-founded Tovlot BeNachat, a Facebook community of 10,000+ women advocating for unattended ritual immersion. She served as a balanit (mikvah attendant) for 11 years and has guided over 1,000 brides and couples in integrating healthy sexuality and halakha, and served as the halakhic authority at the Yahal Center.

Significant collaborations include:
A statement with Rabbanit Dr. Channah Adler Lazarovits on hygiene issues in Israeli mikvaot, prompting reforms supported by Minister Matan Kahana and the Ministry of Health
An ethnographic article on the same topic with Prof. Tsipy Ivry.
Co-founding Brit Emunim with Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum to educate rabbinical students and communities about sexual safety, including leading the "Dinah Partnership" – a global coalition of organizations to counter sexual abuse and silencing.
She was also the head of the Sexual Assault Department in the Kolech organization.

Her publications include groundbreaking research on din hargasha, examining trust in women's bodily reports, based on data from over 1,400 Israeli women.

A student of Kabbalah and Hasidism for over 25 years, she was a research assistant to Prof. Danny Matt, Prof. Ronit Meroz, and Prof. Ada Rappaport z”l. Originally from Jerusalem, she currently lives in Riverdale with her husband Adam and their children Tzur, Zohar, and Kerem. She is both first and seventh generation Israeli.