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About Drisha
A pioneer in advancing Jewish scholarship for women, Drisha Institute for Jewish Education has grown significantly in scope and impact since its founding in 1979. Today, Drisha is a leading center for the study of classical Jewish texts and has profoundly affected the lives of the thousands of students from across the United States and abroad who have taken classes and learned with its exceptional faculty. Drisha provides students of all ages and backgrounds with the opportunity to encounter texts in a serious, intellectually rigorous and inclusive manner through specialized courses, lectures and an emphasis on havruta [partner] study. Its dedication to teaching Torah to women and men has strengthened Jewish lives and communities.
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The Drisha Timeline
September 1979 – Drisha opens its doors with a few students and a handful of classes.
1981 – Drisha offers a 6-week summer program, the first full-time learning program for women. Click here to read about Drisha's summer programs.
1984 – Drisha Fellowship Program, the first women’s kollel, launches. Women learn full-time in this year-long, stipended program, studying Talmud every morning and various other subjects in the afternoon.
1988 – Drisha Summer High School Program begins with 4 students.
1992 – Drisha Scholars Circle, a three-year program paralleling rabbinic ordination, begins. Drisha’s first graduating class had 3 highly-qualified women.
1995 – Drisha’s Yesodot Skill-Building program begins.
1998 – HaSha’ar, a coed program to train day-school teachers, begins. Students spend half-days learning at Drisha and half-days student teaching.
1999 – Sefer Torah is donated to Drisha.
2004 – Drisha Bat Mitzvah program is launched where girls age 11-13 learn with their mothers. High School Winter Week begins. 
2005 – Drisha initiates an Arts Fellowship program of full- and part-time learning for professional women in the arts.
2007 – Drisha’s Yesodot Skill-Building program expands to include full-time learning.
2010 – Coed Collegiate June Immersion Program begins. In 2011 it expands to include a Winter Week Program.
“I started Drisha because I wanted both to teach and to study, and I saw there was a small niche market that was not being served. I had an opportunity to attract serious students who were bright and mature and for who no high-level learning was available.
Today it’s a different world for women in the traditional community, with many different opportunities for learning. Although we are still very far away from the ideal, it is way better than it was, and Drisha has been at the forefront.”
-David SIlber
