(JTA) — Beginner and intermediate Talmud courses are back on the course schedule for undergraduate students at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, after an uproar over their cancellation.
Stern College administrators had said the school would not offer beginning and intermediate Talmud — courses about a foundational Jewish text for women at the country’s flagship Modern Orthodox university — because of low enrollment in those classes. That prompted more than 1,400 students, graduates and others to sign a petition urging the school to reinstate the classes and to endow a full-time chair of Talmud studies.
Now, Stern College says it is adding several Talmud classes to next semester’s schedule, citing increased interest among students.
“It was heartwarming to see the outpouring of interest revolving around women’s Talmud learning on the Beren campus,” Shoshana Schechter, Stern’s associate dean of Torah and spiritual life, and Deena Rabinovich, chair of the Jewish studies department, said in a letter distributed to students by email and WhatsApp on Tuesday.
