The Beth Din of America, one of the preeminent rabbinic courts of North America, is preparing to add a female board member, Dr. Michelle Friedman, the founder and chair of the Department of Pastoral Counseling at New York’s Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT).
Founded in 1999, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah is a modern Orthodox rabbinical seminary that has at times clashed with the Beth Din of America’s parent organization, the Rabbinical Council of America.
Rabbi Shlomo Weissmann, director of the Beth Din of America, said Dr. Friedman was one of “several women” invited to join the 30-person board. The Beth Din has had women on its board since “at least 1998,” Rabbi Weissmann told JTA in an email, and currently has “a handful” of female board members.
Founded in 1960 by the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the Beth Din of America adjudicates commercial, communal and matrimonial conflicts in accordance with Jewish law. In 1994, it became an independent organization, with a separate board of directors.
The board, on which Friedman will serve, has “no role in formulating halachic policy or halachic decision-making,” Weissmann said, but focuses on governance and fundraising.
Friedman’s invitation comes after the RCA announced last week that it would form a new committee to review its conversion.