Ohr Torah Stone created the first school in the world to train women and certify them as Advocates in the Rabbinical Courts. Only because of Ohr Torah Stone’s appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court did women win the legal right to practice in the Courts -an arena previously open only to men.

In October 1990, when Israel’s Chief Rabbinate first recognized that women could serve as advocates in rabbinical courts, Midreshet Lindenbaum initiated the Monica Dennis Goldberg Women’s Rabbinical Court Advocate Program, the first and only school preparing candidates to pass the difficult advocate test designed for men who spend decades studying in yeshivot. Today, women - and men - seeking rabbinical court rulings on divorce, child custody and other matters are able to choose a knowledgeable, understanding female advocate to effectively plead their case and help them negotiate the system.

Most of the highly-motivated, outstanding students in the Advocate Program already hold a degree in law, education, social work or psychology. Under the supervision of legal experts and rabbinical scholars, they study Jewish law in depth, concentrating on the laws of personal status, women’s rights, testimony and civil damages. The advocates are also trained in marriage and personal counseling.

As more and more women become involved in the rabbinical courts, there are steady signs of change in what has been, up to now, a male-dominated and unnecessarily prejudiced system The Advocate Program has already played a significant role in the increasingly-widespread use of pre-nuptial agreements. And three female advocates have been chosen to sit on a newly-formed Council of Rabbinical Court Advocates, along with three male representatives.