Where Sensitivity Meets Practice

Rebbetzin Dr. Adina Shmidman is the founding director of the OU Women’s Initiative. She is a community leader with over three decades of teaching experience in New York, Alabama and Pennsylvania. She received a PhD in Educational Psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, MS in School Psychology from Queens College and MA in Jewish Education and a Certificate in Educational Technology from Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University.  She received a Teacher’s Certificate from Beth Jacob Seminary (BJJ).  She is the rebbetzin of the Lower Merion Synagogue as well as the co-chair of the Lower Merion Community Mikvah in Bala Cynwyd, PA.  She is a kallah teacher and mikvah attendant.  She and her husband, Rabbi Avraham Shmidman, live in Bala Cynwyd, PA and are the parents of four sons. 

Chayie Chinn is the Mikvah Manager and an attendant at the Wallerstein Mikvah in Silver Spring, MD, and has served in various roles at the mikvah for the past 21 years. In her role as a Mikvah educator of the Robin Niman Mikvah Education Fund, Chayie provides comprehensive training to mikvah attendants and taharas hamishpacha classes and lectures to the community.  She trains mikvah attendants and mikvah directors in communities across North America as part of the OU Women’s Initiative Sense and Sensitivity program. Chayie is a popular kallah teacher with a specialty in teaching women getting remarried, and is a certified dating coach.   In her spare time, she teaches gairus candidates and baalei teshuva (both formal and informal education) and loves to form long term relationships with her students. Chayie is passionate about teaching women how to navigate the intricacies of taharas hamishpacha with a calm, inspirational, joyful, and stress-free approach.  

Carly Chodosh, MSS, LSW is a licensed social worker and therapist who lives in the Lower Merion suburb of Philadelphia, where she also serves as the Director of the Lower Merion Community Mikvah. Carly has advanced training in sexual dysfunction as well as perinatal mental health, and works to provide holistic support to the individuals and couples she treats. 

Aviva Birnbaum, LCSW has a private practice in Lakewood, NJ devoted to working with women of all ages. She has over 15 years of experience and specializes in the treatment of anxiety, OCD, panic, perfectionism, perinatal mood disorders and anxiety related women’s issues. She also works extensively with kallahs and newlywed women and supervises others in the field. She provides CBT, ERP, ACT and DBT in a positive, warm and supportive environment.

Carly Chodosh, MSS, LSW is a licensed social worker and therapist who lives in the Lower Merion suburb of Philadelphia, where she also serves as the Director of the Lower Merion Community Mikvah. Carly has advanced training in sexual dysfunction as well as perinatal mental health, and works to provide holistic support to the individuals and couples she treats. 

Chayie Chinn is the Mikvah Manager and an attendant at the Wallerstein Mikvah in Silver Spring, MD, and has served in various roles at the mikvah for the past 21 years. In her role as a Mikvah educator of the Robin Niman Mikvah Education Fund, Chayie provides comprehensive training to mikvah attendants and taharas hamishpacha classes and lectures to the community.  She trains mikvah attendants and mikvah directors in communities across North America as part of the OU Women’s Initiative Sense and Sensitivity program. Chayie is a popular kallah teacher with a specialty in teaching women getting remarried, and is a certified dating coach.   In her spare time, she teaches gairus candidates and baalei teshuva (both formal and informal education) and loves to form long term relationships with her students. Chayie is passionate about teaching women how to navigate the intricacies of taharas hamishpacha with a calm, inspirational, joyful, and stress-free approach.