Speaker Profile 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.