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Cheider Mishelach (literally, A Room of One’s Own), a Beit Midrash for influential female leaders that has run for two years at the Shalom Hartman Institute’s campus in Jerusalem, will be moving to Tel Aviv this year. Run by SHI Fellow Channa Pinchasi, the Beit Midrash touches on the personal and the public through discussion of matters of religion and state, spiritual life, politics, and creativity. The program enables a discourse that includes a range of voices that have the power to produce new insights for participants. In moving to Tel Aviv, Cheidar Mishelach will now reach women who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to participate in this kind of pluralist, text-based learning environment.

This year’s program, which launches in November, will address tensions and opportunities created by the intersection of feminist thought and life in a Jewish, democratic state through study of Judaic sources and feminist thought. Session topics include various aspects of what it means to be a Jewish-Israeli woman.

Session titles include: "Male and Female He Created Them" – Implications of the Creation Story; "This Wisdom of Women" – The Courage to Be Smart; Where’s the Money? – On Women and Resources; On Sexism – Between Pleasure and Power; "Give Me Children or Else I Die" – Motherhood: Meaning of Life or Choice; Where Are You for the Holiday (Aside from in the Kitchen)? – On the New Role of Women in the Family and in Holidays; Between Friendship and Competition; On Partnership, Marriage, and Acquisition; and On the Legacy of Strong Women.

Candidates include several journalists at major Israeli news outlets, senior IDF officers, academics, business and nonprofit executives, senior educators, lawyers, homemakers, and artists. Participants will be chosen based on their past activity, their ability to enlighten the group, and their potential to contribute in the future.