Word-by-Word is a project to provide Jewish women writers engaged in serious Torah scholarship the support and guidance to complete publishable books of Jewish textual analysis that will be significant contributions to any Jewish library. The initiative is co-led by Dr. Erica Brown and Sara Wolkenfeld with generous funding from Micah Philanthropies, Walder Foundation, and the Arev Fund.

Rabba Wendy Amsellem teaches at Yeshivat Maharat and directs the Beit Midrash Program, a joint project of Maharat and YCT. She received semikha from Maharat and is an alumna of the Drisha Scholars Circle and Harvard University. She is working on a book about trajectories of transformation in Tanakh, provisionally titled Stories of Transformation in the Bible.

Adina Blaustein lives in Beachwood, OH, and works for Aleph Beta as the Content Production Manager. Additionally, she serves as Yoetzet Halacha for Green Road Synagogue. Her book project, Intertextual Insights: A Guide to the Weekly Haftarah, focuses on the intertextual relationship haftarot have with the parashah.

Rachel Sharansky Danziger is a Jerusalem-based writer and educator who explores connections between Jewish texts, emotions, and the art of storytelling. She has taught at Matan, Ma'ayan, Pardes, Yeshivat Maharat, Torah in Motion and other venues. Her book, Houses, Divided: Families and Fault Lines in The Book of Judges, will examine the collapse of Israelite society in Judges through the lens of the book's family stories.

Rabba Yaffa Epstein serves as the Senior Scholar and Educator in Residence at The Jewish Education Project. An esteemed educator, she has taught Rabbis, educators and lay leaders from across the Jewish denominational spectrum. Her book, Learning to Care: Deepening our Relationship with Talmudic Texts and Teachings, will explore ten core stories from the Babylonian Talmud, providing original in-depth textual analysis, and pedagogic methodology for teaching these texts in diverse learning environments.

Gila Fine is a lecturer in rabbinic literature at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, reading the tales of the Talmud through philosophy, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and pop-culture. She has served on the faculty of the London School of Jewish Studies, the Nachshon Project, the Bronfman Fellowship, and Amudim Seminary, and has taught thousands of students at conferences and communities across the Jewish world. Her book, The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Heroines of the Talmud, explores the stories of the six named women of the Bavli, revealing there is a lot more to these heroines than initially meets the eye.

Rabbanit Anne Gordon is the deputy editor of Ops & Blogs at The Times of Israel. A veteran educator living in Jerusalem, she co-hosts both the daily podcast, Talking Talmud, and The Chochmat Nashim Podcast, as co-founder of the organization. Her book, The Wise and Their Riddles: How the Sages Reimagine Proverbs, is a study of the interplay between biblical and rabbinic literature.

Dr. Tammy Jacobowitz is the Tanakh department chair at SAR High School in Riverdale, NY and the founding director of Makom B'Siach, an immersive adult education program at SAR. Her book, Vayikra: A New Guide for Parents and Children, will offer adults and children access to the deep treasures in Vayikra by integrating Midrash as a catalyst for interpretive thinking, creativity and personal meaning-making.

Dr. Tamar Ron Marvin is a scholar, writer, and Jewish educator, trained as an intellectual historian of medieval and early modern Jewish studies. Her book project, The Worlds of the Rishonim, is a narrative history of Jewish life and thought during the formative medieval period based on primary sources.

Chaya Sara Oppenheim is pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on American Jewish Orthodox culture, and she teaches and has written about the language, literature, and lifestyle of Jewish communities. Her book project, tentatively titled A Grave Theology: Burial Grounds in Jewish Thought, will draw on biblical and rabbinic sources to explore the rising interest in and implications of cemetery tourism.

Nechama Price is the Director of Yeshiva University's Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud and Tanach Studies for Women, a Senior Lecturer of Bible and Jewish Law at Stern College, and a Yoetzet Halacha in several communities in New Jersey. Her first book, Tribal Blueprints, analyzes the lives and personalities of the twelve tribes. Her forthcoming book, Villains of the Torah, will analyze the duality of the villainous characters of the Torah.

Rabbanit Leah Sarna is a member of the faculty and the Director of Teen Programs at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Trained at Migdal Oz, Yale University and Yeshivat Maharat, she is an award-winning educator who has taught Torah in Orthodox synagogues and Jewish communal settings around the world. Her book project, Begetting and Beginning: A Jewish Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and the First Months of Parenthood, aims to be the go-to resource for Jewishly observant expecting parents.

Dr. Rachel Scheinerman is the editor of My Jewish Learning and the creator of A Daily Dose of Talmud: Daf Yomi for Everyone. She holds a PhD in Ancient Judaism from Yale University. Her book project, The Accidental Origins of the Seder, will offer an accessible, scholarly introduction to the rabbis and a new and deeper understanding of Passover.

Dr. Shana Strauch Schick is a lecturer in Rabbinic Literature in the Multidisciplinary Department of Jewish Studies at Bar Ilan University and teaches Talmud and Jewish Law at Drisha Institute, NY. She is the author of Intention in Talmudic Jurisprudence: Between Thought and Deed (Brill, 2021). Her book project, Women in Rabbinic Law and Narrative: Vying Currents in Babylonian and Palestinian Texts, will explore contrasting views on the legal and communal status of women in the rabbinic societies of Babylonia and the Land of Israel during the Talmudic period.

Ilana Stein is a conservationist, writer and educator. She writes for African conservation entities and is Head of Education for the Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning, where she lectures on Tanach, Jewish thought, and the vital relationship between Judaism and Nature. In her book, Ethics of Eden: The Meeting Point of Judaism, Environmental Ethics and Wonder, she will consider nature, the environment and sustainability in Jewish thought and halakha.

Rabbanit Victoria Sutton teaches Judaic studies at the Heschel School. She served as the Director of Education and Community Engagement at Congregation Beth Israel, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. Her book project, Sephardic Women’s Halakhah & Minhag: Preserving & Deepening Traditions, will explore and document the lived religious traditions and halakhic frameworks of Sephardic women.

Tamar Weissman is an educator and tour guide living in Sde Ilan, Israel. Her book on the twelve tribes of Israel, Tribal Lands, is accessible via Sefaria's database, and she is currently working on a book with Batnadiv HaKarmi on the petichtot of Megilat Esther. Her book project for Sefaria is tentatively titled Israel's Adolescence: Essays on the Book of Judges and focuses on Israel's coming-of-age story as told in the Book of Judges.

Sarah Wolf is Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Her book, Emotions in Rabbinic Law, examines Late Antique rabbinic legal literature to uncover how emotions were defined, categorized, and regulated in rabbinic culture.

Miriam Zami is a PhD student in Talmud and Ancient Judaism at Yeshiva University. She teaches across a variety of settings and is an editor at the Lehrhaus, an online publication of Jewish thought. Miriam’s book project, tentatively titled Talmudic Humor and The Shaping of Rabbinic Identity, will explore the multifaceted expressions of humor and laughter in rabbinic literature, and the ways in which the rabbis utilize humor to navigate and develop their rabbinic identity amidst competing cultures.

Ariella Zirkind is a proud Rebbetzin of the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx, a Yeshiva University Stern College graduate with a degree in Judaics, and a certified Kallah teacher. Her book, Choosing Niddah, will present a hashkafic analysis of Niddah through primary sources, hoping to close the gap between meticulous Halachic observance and inspired Jewish living.

Rabbanit Devorah Zlochower is Senior Scholar and mashgicha ruchanit at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School. She has taught Talmud and Halakhah for 30 years and was a graduate of the first cohort of Drisha Institute’s Scholars Circle. Her book examines five Talmudic sugyot in which women are the focal point, engaging with them from a biographical perspective.

Dr. Erica Brown is the proud mother of four children, four in-law children, and four beautiful grandchildren. She is also the Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and the founding director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks/Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. Her forthcoming book is Kohelet and the Search for Meaning (Maggid, 2023). During the cohort, she will be working on Love Notes: Meditations on the Song of Songs.

Rabbanit Sara Wolkenfeld is the Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria, and an experienced Torah educator and speaker. Her research and writing center on the ethics of technology within a Jewish framework. Her book project is an exploration of issues and questions raised by the digital revolution through the lens of Talmudic sugyot.