(29) Innovation with patience: Jo Grose, CEO of the United Synagogue

Can a woman be both Haredi and feminist? And what happens when challenging the norms of your community is an expression of loyalty to that very community? Fainy Sukenik is a Haredi feminist, social entrepreneur, and activist who has spent years challenging entrenched attitudes toward women in Israel's ultra-Orthodox society. After escaping an abusive marriage and experiencing the isolation and stigma faced by divorced women, she founded an organization to provide the support she herself had desperately needed. But her ambitions went further: she wanted to change the system itself. In this powerful conversation, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Fainy about surviving domestic abuse, confronting communal resistance, and insisting that divorced women deserve justice and respect, not simply charity. They also explore her groundbreaking campaign for Haredi women's representation in the Knesset, the growing struggle between reform and religious extremism, and her hopes for the next generation of Haredi women. Throughout it all, Fainy refuses to accept that feminism and Haredi identity are incompatible. Her message is both challenging and deeply hopeful: loving your community doesn't mean accepting everything about it. Sometimes, it means fighting to make it better.

In the years before October 7th, Shira Lankin Sheps built her career around helping Jewish women tell the stories that too often remained hidden. Since October 7th, that mission has taken on a new urgency. In this deeply moving conversation, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Shira about the power of storytelling in a time of war, grief, division, and rising antisemitism. Shira reflects on telling the stories of hostages and soldiers, the extraordinary moment when former hostage Sasha Trufanov discovered just how deeply the Jewish people had cared about him, and the challenge of conveying the lived reality of Israel to Jews around the world. They also explore female leadership, the remarkable story behind the Az Nashir anthologies, the dangers of social media, the growing divisions within Israeli society, and Shira's belief that women's voices, creativity, empathy, and spiritual power can help shape the Jewish future. Released just before the anniversary of October 7th, this is ultimately a conversation about what stories can accomplish: helping us remember, helping us understand one another, and reminding us that behind every headline is a human being whose story matters.

For generations, mikvah has been one of the most central institutions of Jewish life. But for many women, it has also remained deeply private, rarely discussed openly and often understood primarily in terms of obligation. What might change if we thought about mikvah not only as a halachic practice, but as a source of spirituality, self-awareness, connection, and renewal? In this episode of Women's Gallery, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, founder and director of the Eden Center in Jerusalem, about reimagining the place of mikvah in the lives of Jewish women. Beginning with the centuries-old custom of women immersing before Yom Kippur, they explore mikvah as an embodied form of spiritual preparation and a powerful opportunity to think about who we are and who we hope to become in the year ahead. Their conversation moves into some of the most sensitive questions surrounding mikvah today: the role of mikvah attendants, autonomy and trauma, sexuality and relationships, women's halachic knowledge and authority, and whether our emphasis on privacy has sometimes created unnecessary secrecy and shame. It's a wide-ranging conversation about tradition, women's bodies, spiritual renewal, and what it might mean for women to take greater ownership of one of Judaism's most intimate rituals. Partake in the ancient custom of women's immersion on erev Yom Kippur. This helpful infographic from The Eden Center can guide you. It's also a wonderful time to introduce girls to mikveh in a spiritual context, without the overtones of relationship.

What does it mean to build a Jewish community where secular and religious, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, right and left can all find a place? In this deeply moving conversation, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, founder of Kehilat Zion in Jerusalem and a leading voice for Jewish spiritual and communal renewal. Drawing on the faith of her Moroccan and Ashkenazi grandparents, Tamar describes a vision of Judaism that reaches beyond denominational labels and asks Jews to rediscover one another as a people. Together, Jo and Tamar explore the challenge of creating new Jewish ritual after October 7, the spiritual needs of a younger generation, the tension between pluralism and extremism, and what Rosh Hashanah can teach us about judgment, happiness, responsibility, and hope. Tamar also reflects on her path as a female religious leader and her dream of a future in which women no longer need to justify why their voices belong in Jewish leadership. At a moment of profound pain and division, this is a conversation about tradition that remains alive, leadership rooted in responsibility, and the possibility of rebuilding a Jewish people capable of seeing, hearing, and healing one another.

For years, women in Israel could study halakha at the highest levels, teach Torah, and answer complex religious questions, yet they were barred from taking the state rabbinical examinations open to men. Rabbi Sarah Segal-Katz helped lead the landmark legal battle that finally changed that. In this episode of Women's Gallery, Joanne Greenaway speaks with Sarah about her journey into Torah scholarship, the long struggle to open Israel's rabbinical exams to women, and why access to religious knowledge and authority matters far beyond titles or recognition. They also explore the evolving place of women in Orthodox leadership, the relationship between feminism, halakha, and the State of Israel, Sarah's work creating religious language in response to October 7, and her hope for a future in which women serving as rabbis and religious authorities is no longer remarkable, but simply normal.