About Women’s Gallery: Showcasing Women in Jewish Leadership
"I've seen the difference it makes when women's voices and talents are included at all levels," says Rabbanit Joanne Greenaway, who as well as being a communal leader and educator is an international lawyer who developed expertise in resolving Jewish divorce cases individually and systemically.
Women's Gallery Podcast spotlights a diverse range of female leaders making a mark in the Jewish community globally. Interviewing a different woman leader in each episode, Women's Gallery will explore different models of leadership in the context of communities, schools, shuls, universities, batei din, courts, online spaces and every place where we can find incredible female leaders, showcasing the women defining Jewish leadership today.
This independent podcast is powered by the Walder Foundation and a generous anonymous donor.
(59) Women's Torah Learning Is Ready for Its Next Revolution
For generations, men have been encouraged to spend years immersed in Torah study, with no expectation that they justify the time or explain what career it might lead to. Why, then, are women so often expected to approach Torah learning differently?
Rabbanit Yael Shimoni, co-Rosh Yeshiva of Drisha in Israel, believes it's time to rethink not only the opportunities available to women, but the very culture of women's Torah learning. Her vision is ambitious: a world in which women can devote years to serious, intensive Gemara study, not necessarily to become rabbis or teachers, but because learning Torah is itself a worthy pursuit.
In this fascinating conversation, Joanne Greenaway explores Yael's personal journey, from studying with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein to becoming a pioneering Torah educator and practicing artist. Together, they examine whether women's yeshivas should follow the models established by men, what female scholarship can contribute to halachic discourse, and why women's growing Torah expertise has yet to translate fully into recognition and authority.
Is the next stage of women's Torah learning simply about opening more doors, or about fundamentally changing our expectations of what women can become?
Join Joanne and Rabbanit Yael Shimoni for a thought-provoking conversation about Torah, feminism, scholarship, and the future of women's religious leadership.
20 Oct 2026
(58) A Haredi Feminist Fighting for Change from Within, with Fainy Sukenik
Can a woman be both Haredi and feminist? And what happens when challenging the norms of your community is an expression of loyalty to that very community?
Fainy Sukenik is a Haredi feminist, social entrepreneur, and activist who has spent years challenging entrenched attitudes toward women in Israel's ultra-Orthodox society. After escaping an abusive marriage and experiencing the isolation and stigma faced by divorced women, she founded an organization to provide the support she herself had desperately needed. But her ambitions went further: she wanted to change the system itself.
In this powerful conversation, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Fainy about surviving domestic abuse, confronting communal resistance, and insisting that divorced women deserve justice and respect, not simply charity. They also explore her groundbreaking campaign for Haredi women's representation in the Knesset, the growing struggle between reform and religious extremism, and her hopes for the next generation of Haredi women.
Throughout it all, Fainy refuses to accept that feminism and Haredi identity are incompatible. Her message is both challenging and deeply hopeful: loving your community doesn't mean accepting everything about it. Sometimes, it means fighting to make it better.
6 Oct 2026
(57) Telling Our Stories After October 7th: Jewish Women, Leadership, and the Power of Being Heard, with Shira Lankin Sheps
In the years before October 7th, Shira Lankin Sheps built her career around helping Jewish women tell the stories that too often remained hidden. Since October 7th, that mission has taken on a new urgency.
In this deeply moving conversation, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Shira about the power of storytelling in a time of war, grief, division, and rising antisemitism. Shira reflects on telling the stories of hostages and soldiers, the extraordinary moment when former hostage Sasha Trufanov discovered just how deeply the Jewish people had cared about him, and the challenge of conveying the lived reality of Israel to Jews around the world.
They also explore female leadership, the remarkable story behind the Az Nashir anthologies, the dangers of social media, the growing divisions within Israeli society, and Shira's belief that women's voices, creativity, empathy, and spiritual power can help shape the Jewish future.
Released just before the anniversary of October 7th, this is ultimately a conversation about what stories can accomplish: helping us remember, helping us understand one another, and reminding us that behind every headline is a human being whose story matters.
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