CASE STUDY
MEDIA RELATIONS & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: YESHIVAT MAHARAT
The Challenge
Yeshivat Maharat (YM), the first organization to ordain women to become rabbis (referred to as rabbas) in the Orthodox Jewish community, hired The TASC Group to launch a campaign discouraging the Orthodox Union (OU) from ruling against its work and expelling synagogues that employed rabbas.
The Challenge
Yeshivat Maharat (YM), the first organization to ordain women to become rabbis (referred to as rabbas) in the Orthodox Jewish community, hired The TASC Group to launch a campaign discouraging the Orthodox Union (OU) from ruling against its work and expelling synagogues that employed rabbas.
The Strategy
TASC organized meetings with Jewish lay leaders and rabbis to determine who would be best positioned to support YM in the media and defend it against the OU as needed. TASC strategically placed op-eds from YM President Rabba Sara Hurwitz that spoke to the positive impact of women religious leaders on their communities, as well as organized brown bag meetings with key religion reporters at influential outlets including the Associated Press and the New York Daily News, briefing them on the complexity of the rabbinical issues regarding the ordination of Orthodox women.
The Results
TASC placed op-eds in the New York Daily News and the Forward, and secured additional coverage that generated over 3 million media impressions as well as meaningful support from lay leaders in the community. This coverage elevated Rabba Sara Hurwitz as a major religious thought leader in the New York area. TASC’s strategic media work also put pressure on the OU not to expel rabbas, resulting in its ruling that synagogues could keep their women leaders. YM continues to train and ordain women as rabbas and show their immense value in prominent places such as Washington, New York and Los Angeles.
MEDIA COVERAGE
