The International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF) is a Modern Orthodox rabbinical organization founded by Rabbis Avi Weiss and Marc D. Angel in 2007. The group is open to Orthodox rabbis, including graduates of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat, and is the only Orthodox rabbinical association to admit women rabbis as members. The group's current president is Rabbi Yonah Berman and its Executive Director is Rabbi Jason Herman.
Overview IRF began as a fellowship of Orthodox rabbis and spiritual leaders with a more open and accessible view of Orthodox Judaism.Waxman, C. I. (2016). Adam S. Ferziger. Beyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2015. 352 pp. AJS review, 40(1), 214-216.International Rabbinic Fellowship, Homepage, https://www.internationalrabbinicfellowship.org/ The IRF views itself as a counterpart to the Rabbinical Council of America and is one of the main association of Modern Orthodox rabbis.Claussen, G. (2019). Two Orthodox Approaches to Vulnerability and the Exodus Narrative: The Stranger in the Writings of Irving Greenberg and Meir Kahane. Studies in Judaism, Humanities, and the Social Sciences, 2(1).Joffe, L. F. (2016). The impact of “foreign law” bans on the struggle for women’s equality under Jewish law in the United States of America. In Women's Rights and Religious Law (pp. 179-201). Routledge. In 2018, the association reportedly consisted of approximately 250 members. 10th Anniversary of International Rabbinic Fellowship, Marc D. Angel, Jewish Ideas, https://www.jewishideas.org/blog/10th-anniversary-international-rabbinic-fellowship-blog-rabbi-marc-d-angel The differentiation of the positions held by the IRF from those held by other Orthodox associations have led some to point to the irrelevance of denominational labels in contemporary Judaism.Phillips, B. A. (2011). A Demographer Considers the Twenty-First Century. CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly. Alternatively, the IRF is evidence of a shifting trend, within modern Orthodoxy, away from fundamentalism.Turetsky, Y., & Waxman, C. I. (2011). Sliding to the Left? Contemporary American Modern Orthodoxy. Modern Judaism, 31(2), 119-141.
The IRF supports the ordination of women and their role in the clergy and since 2012 has admitted female members. Prior to this decision, in December 2010, the group had voted against such a proposal.Grossman, L. (2013). Jewish Communal Affairs. In American Jewish Year Book 2012 (pp. 113-142). Springer, Dordrecht. The IRF supports the use of a halachic prenuptial agreement, and in 2012 the group passed a resolution stating that member rabbis may only officiate a wedding if the couple has signed such an agreement.
Publications "Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Organ Donation" (ed. Zev Farber). Maggid Books, 2017. "Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Brain Death" (ed. Zev Farber). Maggid Books, 2016.
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