Lecturer Bios
Rabbi Mordechai Willig
Rabbi Willig, a rosh yeshiva (professor of Talmud) at the university’s Yeshiva Program/Mazer School of Talmudic Studies since 1973, and s’gan rosh kollel L’Horaah Yadin Yadin (assistant head of the post-graduate institute) since 1987, is one of the world’s leading authorities on issues pertaining to the agunah, a Jewish woman who cannot obtain a religious divorce because of a recalcitrant husband. Rabbi Willig received a bachelor’s degree in math in 1968 and a master’s degree in Jewish history in 1971. That year he also received semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from RIETS. Rabbi Willig is spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Riverdale.
Rabbi Shlomo Weissmann, Esq.
Rabbi Weissmann received rabbinical ordination from RIETS in 2001 and advanced rabbinical ordination (Yadin Yadin) in 2014. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Prior to his association with the Beth Din of America, Rabbi Weissmann worked as an attorney at several prominent law firms, including Debevoise and Plimpton LLP.
