Dr. Renana Ravitsky Pilzer is Educational Director of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Center for Israeli & Jewish Identity.

She works to define the program’s educational direction and the integration of the Institute’s philosophical-pluralistic approach in the program’s curricula and teaching.

Renana has studied and worked at the Institute for many years in different capacities. Among her positions, she served as the co-director of the Melamdim School for Teacher Training, and for the past several years as the head of the Beit Midrash at the Midrashiya Girls High School, leading an experiment to develop the school’s Orthodox feminist curriculum.

She continues to fill roles at the Midrashiya and as a Kogod Center research fellow.

Renana’s academic interest focuses on Jewish thought and Midrash. She received her doctorate in Midrash and Gender in the Bar Ilan University Gender Studies Program.

Renana is a graduate of and former teacher in the Elul Beit Midrash and is one of the founders and leaders of Kehilat Shira Hadasha in Jerusalem. She is married to Mennie and a mother of four.