Program details
Yeshivat Drisha enables women to achieve the highest levels of Torah learning by fostering their development as talmidot chakhamim and cultivating intellectual, religious, and personal depth. In our unique Shana Alef program, highly motivated, post-high school young women join the advanced learners of the Yeshiva for a tailor-made one-year program.
Who?
Where?
When?
What?
Drisha opened the doors of its Yeshiva (originally in Rosh Tzurim and now in Kfar Etzion) in August 2018, offering full-time, advanced learning for women. It has created a warm and close community of learners who daven and deepen their dedication to Torah and mitzvot together. The mission of the Yeshiva is to enable women to achieve the highest levels of Torah learning by fostering their development as talmidot chakhamim and cultivating intellectual, religious, and personal depth.
In our unique Shana Alef program, highly motivated, post-high school young women join the advanced learners of the Yeshiva for a tailor-made one-year program. They experience intensive Talmud Torah at the highest level accompanied by meaningful spiritual growth and engagement with the land and people of Israel.
The students who join the one-year program from chutz la-aretz make up about one third of the Shana Alef group, and are completely integrated with the Israeli students who make up the majority of the Yeshiva community. Overseas students live and learn with their Israeli counterparts in a Hebrew-speaking environment, while being supported by English-speaking staff members.
Why Yeshivat Drisha?
- We offer a Gemara curriculum of five sidrei iyyun and four sidrei bekiut a week. All classes include seder as well as shiur, where students first prepare the sources b’chavruta in the Beit Midrash before reviewing and enriching their understanding in class.
- Our leadership and core faculty are women, led by Rosh Yeshiva Hanna Godinger (Dreyfuss), and their deep and ongoing learning is a source of inspiration for all students.
- Each student is personally mentored by Yeshiva staff to cultivate the development of strong skills and deep and nuanced understanding of the materials studied. This caring, pedagogical approach is core to our mission.
- We are a small, intimate Beit Midrash community.
- Though the Yeshiva’s language of instruction is Hebrew, the Beit Midrash staff includes English-speaking faculty who meet with students, as needed, to support understanding and integration of the material learned in shiur. As such, supplemental review shiurim are provided in English to ensure that nothing gets lost in translation.
- The learning culture of the Beit Midrash is anchored by young women who have been learning for several years
Rabbanit Hanna Godinger (Dreyfuss) is the Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshivat Drisha. Previously, she taught Gemara iyun at Matan Jerusalem and headed the Metivta program there. She served as the Rosh Beit Midrash at Midreshet Lindenbaum for five years and as Rabbanit Beit Sefer at Pelech High School in Jerusalem for close to a decade. She studied at Migdal Oz for three years, for four years in Matan’s Advanced Talmud Institute, and for one year in the halacha program at Beit Morasha. She holds a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from the Open University, and an MA in Talmud from Bar Ilan University. She is recognized in the Torah world as a talmidat chachamim, who has expertise in learning, teaching, and writing. She is a sought-after lecturer in different frameworks, and publishes Torah articles and halachic teshuvot on different platforms.
Rabbanit Yael Shimoni is the Assistant Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshivat Drisha. Rabbanit Yael Shimoni founded and previously directed the “Meshivat Nefesh” initiative – the online halachic and spiritual responsa program of the rabbaniyot of Beit Hillel. She taught at Pelech High School in Jerusalem for a decade and served as a ramit for Shana Bet at Migdal Oz for two years. Over the years she has taught in various other institutions – Midreshet Emuna v’Omanut, Midreshet Lindenbaum, and Herzog College. She is a plastic artist and member of “A Studio of Her Own”, and exhibits her works around the country. She studied for three years at the Institute for Halakhic Leadership at Midreshet Lindenbaum, for six years at Migdal Oz, and for two years in Matan’s Advanced Talmud Institute. She holds a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and a B. Ed in Torah Shebe’al Peh and Jewish Thought from Herzog College. She is currently completing her MA in Jewish Thought Education at Herzog College.
Daphna Nizan is the Overseas Program Coordinator at Yeshivat Drisha. She holds a BA in Tanach, Talmud, and Jewish Art, as well as an MA in Talmud and teaching certification from Bar Ilan University. She has worked for the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education and taught in MMY, TVA, the Drisha high school summer program, and the Hartman high school for girls, as well as for many summers in Camp Moshava. She has studied in Midreshet Lindenbaum, Matan, and is a graduate of the Advanced Gemara Program in Migdal Oz, in addition to studying in their halacha program for three years. She is currently learning at and coordinating the Overseas Shana Alef Program at the Yeshiva.
Rabbanit Nechama Porat is the Ramit Shiur Alef at Drisha. Outside Drisha, she teaches at Midreshet Zohar in Bat Ayin and is completing an MA in Jewish History at Hebrew University. She taught Gemara at Beit Midrash Havruta in Har Hatzofim and served as a ramit at Midreshet Lindenbaum for six years. She headed Midreshet Zion in Washington D.C. which involved teaching Gemara to the upper grades in the high school as well as teaching Gemara, Tanach, and Machshava in the community. She studied in Nishmat and Migdal Oz for Shana Alef, Bet, and Gimmel, after which she studied for three years in the Institute for Halachic Leadership at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She holds a B.Ed in Jewish Thought and Toshba.
Talia has studied and taught in Beit Morasha and Matan Be’er Sheva, and teaches in the women’s Beit Midrash which she established in Otniel. She is also involved in writing books about the Kabbalah of the Ari, and practices holistic therapy through reflexology and massage. She teaches bekiut Gemara and Chassidut at the Yeshiva.
Rabbanit Shira is the rabbanit of the Shirat Hatamar Community and head of the religious council in Efrat. She is a graduate of the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute of Halakhic Leadership at Midreshet Lindenbaum where she was trained in the areas of Shabbat, Niddah, Chuppa v’kiddushin, Brachot, and Issur v’heter. In the past she produced a weekly daf yomi vlog called “Daf Mishela’hen” in partnership with Hadran, and a weekly podcast on parashat hashavua called “Parasha Mishela’hen” in partnership with Makor Rishon. She is a member of Beit Hillel and answers halachic questions on the Meshivat Nefesh website. She is a graduate of the Mandel Leadership Institute and holds a B.A. in Psychology and Information Sciences from Bar Ilan University.
Dr. Cohen is a lecturer and researches literature, culture, and Judaism at Herzog College and Ono Academic College. His books “סיפורי פסוק לי פסוקך” and “?למה דומה קולנוע” were recently published.
Tzophia is currently Eim Bayit at Yeshivat Drisha and the Director of the Drisha Summer Middle School Program for Girls. She completed her B.A. in psychology and Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University, where she continued learning there in their advanced Gemara and Halacha program (GPATS) for three years. Over the course of her time in GPATS, she served as a community scholar in multiple synagogues and taught college courses at Yeshiva University. She recently made aliyah with her husband from the tri-state area and came straight to learn in Drisha’s Beit Medrash. You can always find Tzophia learning, doing Zumba, or playing clue. She is passionate about Torah and camp which is why she loves Drisha’s summer programs.
Orah is a clinical social worker at Machon Dvir, a DBT center located in Jerusalem and Ranana, where she works in an outpatient program running skills groups while meeting with individual clients. She is also a supervisor for Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work, where she helps to train and support students through their schooling. Originally from Chicago, Orah made aliyah after studying psychology at Touro Manhattan, and later received her masters from Wurzweiler in conjunction with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With a passion for mental health and working with gap year students, Orah is excited to serve as an in-house guidance counselor at the Yeshiva, working with the students from the overseas program by providing emotional guidance and support during their time in the Yeshiva.
Michal was previously the librarian at the Herzog Academic Library at the Migdal Oz campus. She holds a B.A. in literature and biology. She is responsible for the students’ social and personal well being, and provides emotional guidance for them during their studies at the Yeshiva.
Faigie holds a B.A. in education from David Yellin College. She has worked in integration education and remedial teaching in a number of middle and high schools. She managed the Pelech middle school office for ten years.
Program application
To apply to the Yeshiva, fill out an application here.
Contact us
Reach out to Daphna Nizan, our Overseas Program Coordinator at dnizan@drisha.org or use our general contact form with any questions.
