The renaissance of Torah study for women, then, is exactly that: the revival of a value and ideal that has existed in Judaism from the very beginning. Although rigorous Torah study for girls is part of the regular curriculum in day schools and yeshivas throughout the world, many women were never afforded that opportunity. So what is a woman to do who did not have the benefit of a solid Jewish education as a youngster and is already busy with getting a degree, her family or career?

"The primary reason why the Machon Chana in the Mountains summer program was created," says Mrs. Sara Labkowski, director of Machon Chana Women's Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York, "was to give as many women as possible of all ages and stages--the opportunity and tools to claim their inheritance."

I participated in the Machon Chana in the Mountains program this past summer at its beautiful, scenic campus in Tannersville, New York. I had a chance to meet many of the women who were studying there, some for a long weekend, others for two weeks, and still others for the entire summer.

Roni was the proverbial wandering Jew. She grew up in Los Angeles, spent time herding sheep on a Navajo Reservation in Arizona and joined an activist caravan traveling around the United States protesting the World Bank. "Before I became involved in Torah and mitzvos, I was very extreme. As an activist, I saw everything as black or white. I was constantly fighting. My parents were bourgeoisie and I used to berate them for driving their BMW and not eating organic. Eventually I realized that even activists aren't necessarily 'holy'; there was no one teaching us how to live.

"I traveled to Israel and had a personal spiritual awakening. I returned to the U.S., to Portland, Oregon, with a friend, Shalom, I had met in Israel. We started going to Torah classes taught by Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm. But I wanted to get a woman's perspective on Torah, to rediscover that part of myself - my feminine side - that I had buried during my years of activism. The Wilhelms told me about Machon Chana."

Roni attended the Machon Chana program in the Mountains. About her time spent there she recalls, "I was so happy to be with women, to find out that Judaism is not misogynist, to learn how to live."

I remember having DMCs (deep meaningful conversations, as my teenage daughter calls them) with Roni in the gazebo. We talked about life and love and commitment and marriage and raising kids. Shalom was studying at a similar program for men, Hadar HaTorah, in a different part of the Catskill Mountains. At the end of the summer Roni made the commitment to study Torah full time at the Machon Chana Women's Yeshiva in Brooklyn. Months later she made an equally momentous commitment - she and Shalom decided to get married. Their wedding date? Just a few days after we celebrate the giving of the Torah (to the women first!) at Mount Sinai.

A few weeks into the summer a phone call was received from Rabbi Yossi Laufer of Warwick, Rhode Island. He told us about Monika who was visiting relatives in Warwick for a few weeks from Poland. She had been raised Catholic but had recently found out that her mother's mother was Jewish. With this discovery came a burning desire to study more about Judaism. Learning everything she could from various Jewish websites on-line, she jumped at the opportunity to visit non-Jewish relatives in Warwick, hoping to make contact with the Jewish community there. When she got in touch with Rabbi Yossi Laufer, he told her about the special learning opportunity that could be hers. Could arrangements quickly be made for her to come for a week? Rabbi Laufer asked.

I assured him they could and offered, "She can extend the week if she chooses."

"No," he explained to me, "her relatives think that she is leaving them for a week to see the sites in New York City; they would never agree to let her study Torah if they knew that was her intention."

I sat next to her on Shabbat during services. I was amazed that she had taught herself Hebrew well enough to be able to follow along during the Torah reading. "I am not used to being around so many Jews," Monika whispered to me with a look that was a mixture of pleasure and astonishment.

I remembered seeing that same look on her face when I had shown her the weekly schedule of classes on the day she arrived. Talmud, Jewish Law, the Fundamentals of Jewish Belief, Chasidic Philosophy, Chumash (the Five Books of Moses), the Jewish Woman, Hebrew were offered daily. And, I added, madrichot ("counselors") were available to study one-on-one practically any Jewish subject imaginable.

Monika was also very taken with the children who had accompanied their parents to Machon Chana in the Mountains. Some were the children of faculty members, while others belonged to the women who had come to study. All were kept happy and busy in the on-site day camp whose hours coincided with those of morning and afternoon classes so that the kids could be occupied while mom studied. "Their bright eyes, their free laughter - it's such a pleasure," Monika shared, bringing home the fact that there aren't very many young Jewish children laughing and smiling in Poland.

On one of my last Shabbats there, the madrichot had arranged a birthday party for Hannah. Hannah's flight back home to California had been booked for the previous Thursday. But she extended her stay through Sunday to be able to celebrate her birthday in this warm, edifying environment, as she explained.

It was after the Friday night meal and about 20 of us were lingering in the dining room, singing soulful niggunim (Chasidic melodies), sharing what we had learned the previous weeks or insights that had grown from thoughtful contemplations after classes. Hannah had spoken to her young son Yishai before Shabbat. He was sharing Hannah's journey into Jewish learning and was attending a day camp organized by the local Chabad House in Southern California where she lives. Hannah shared with us little anecdotes that illustrated how her son was her inspiration and always encouraged her to reach higher and go further in her Jewish journey. As is customary on a birthday, Hannah resolved to upgrade the observance of a mitzvah for the upcoming year and inspired many of us to do the same.

Beth from Connecticut came for a week of intensive study. Beth and I chuckled when she related that it took her a little while to get over the initial "shock" of sitting in classes and socializing with women 20 years her junior. There's no generation gap when everyone's focused on the same thing, in this case Torah study and spiritual growth, we learned. This summer Beth plans on coming back with her daughter so that they, too, will be able to share her Torah experience.

Surely you remember one of the Sunday school and Hebrew school top ten hits of all time: "Torah, Torah, Torah tziva lanu Moshe. . ." The Torah that Moses commanded us is an inheritance to the congregation of Jacob." Torah, the birthright, of every Jewish woman, can be claimed at Machon Chana in the Mountains.

For more info visit www.machonchana.org or call (718) 735-0030.

	Classes usually take place outdoors

	Enjoying a quiet moment in the reading room

	Machon Chana in the Mountains' spacious campus

	Some of last summer's participants