Haviva Ner-David

Haviva Ner-David (formerly Haviva Krasner-Davidson) received her PhD from Bar Ilan University and wrote her thesis concerning the nature of the relationship between Tumah (ritual impurity) and Niddah (a menstruant woman). In 1993 she applied to Yeshiva University’s rabbinical program, RIETS and never received an official response. Despite this early rejection, she went on to become one of the first women known to have controversially been granted the equivalent of Orthodox Semicha (rabbinic ordination), which she received from Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Strikovsky of Tel-Aviv in 2006. In 2000 she wrote a book documenting her journey and aspirations as a female rabbi entitled, Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination. She is the founding director of Reut: The Center for Modern Jewish Marriageand self identifies as a “post-denominational rabbi.”She advocates arguably non-Orthodox practices such as egalitarian Tefilah and unmarried women practicing mikveh before engaging in pre-marital sex.

Ner-David is the Director of "Shmaya": A Ritual and Educational Mikveh, and the founding director of Reut: The Center for Modern Jewish Marriage. She has also written "Chanah’s Voice: A Rabbi Wrestles with Gender, Commandment, and the Women’s Rituals of Baking, Bathing, and Brightening" (2013, Ben Yehudah Press). She lives on Kibbutz Hannaton in northern Israel with her husband and seven children.