Draft:Bracha Rutner

Bracha Rutner (born May 9, 1976) is an American teacher, the head of school of Yeshiva University High School for Girls, and the first yoetzet halacha in North America.

Education
Rutner is a graduate of the Bruria Scholars Program at Midreshet Lindenbaum and a graduate of the ATID Fellowship Program in Jerusalem. She received her BA in Judaic Studies from Stern College for Women in 1998 and got her master's degree in Education Administration from St. John's University. She also attended Nishmat’s Keren Ariel Women’s Halachic Institute in Jerusalem and has done graduate work in Talmud from Hebrew University, and is currently pursuing her EdD in the Azrieli Doctoral Program for Administration.

Career
After studying at Nishmat, Rutner was hired by Riverdale Jewish Center in September 2003, thus becoming the first congregational yoetzet halacha (female advisor in Jewish law) to be hired by a North American synagogue. She is certified by a panel of Orthodox Rabbis to be a resource for women with questions regarding Taharat haMishpacha (laws related to women and Mikvah). Her hiring was a significant move in the Jewish Modern Orthodox North American community, and viewed as an innovotion or 'revolution'.

Rutner has given lectures and been a scholar in residence in communities all across North America. She taught halacha at Yeshiva of Flatbush high school from 2003 until 2010. In 2010, Rutner began teaching Gemara at Yeshiva University High School for Girls (YUHSG), where she served as Department Chair of Judaic studies and later assistant principal. She then became Head of School in 2022, after taking over during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2015, she served as part of a committee organized by the Rabbinical Council of America to review its conversion processes.

Personal life
Rutner is originally from Silver Spring, Maryland.

Rutner lives with her husband and four children in West Hempstead, NY, where she teaches at Eitz Chayim synagogue in the adult education program.