Michal Raucher is an associate professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. Her research lies at the intersection of the anthropology of women in Judaism, reproductive ethics, and religious authority. Michal has a background in religion, anthropology, gender studies, and bioethics.

As a Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Raucher conducted research on the reproductive ethics of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish women in Israel. Her first book, which is based on this research, was published by Indiana University Press in 2020. It is titled, Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority among Haredi Women.

Dr. Raucher’s second book, tentatively titled “The New Rabbis,” is based on six years of research with women who have been ordained as Orthodox rabbis in America. “The New Rabbis,” explores how religious authority is changing in Orthodoxy in America with a focus on women rabbis. Research for this book has been supported by the Israel Institute, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the American Academy of Religion, and the University of Cincinnati.

Michal has also published on Jewish pronatalism, the study of Orthodox Judaism, sexuality and gender in Judaism, religion and bioethics, abortion legislation in Israel, and female religious advisors on the Internet.

Michal is currently engaged in several research projects related to religion and abortion in the US. In the summer of 2021 Dr. Raucher began interviewing women who identify as Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, and who have had an abortion. She is collecting this data with four colleagues from different universities in North America. Michal is also working with a research team that is surveying and interviewing Jews who have had abortions in the US since 1973. Finally, she is surveying “Rabbis for Repro,” rabbis, cantors, and Jewish educators who have pledged to support reproductive rights and justice.

Michal has been teaching public audiences for several years on issues related to reproduction and abortion among Jews and in Jewish texts. Her work has been featured in NBC News, JTA, The Conversation, the Feminist Studies in Religion blog, and she has been quoted in The New York Times.

Dr. Raucher has been a fellow at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a visiting scholar at the Hastings Center and Yale University’s Center for Bioethics. She has consulted for the United Nations Population Fund, where she worked with colleagues from around the world on improving reproductive and sexual rights and health for women and children. She taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary and The University of Cincinnati before joining the faculty at Rutgers University.

Dr. Raucher is co-editor for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. She has been co-editor of the FSR blog and is past-president of the Society of Jewish Ethics. Michal has degrees from Columbia University, The Jewish Theological Seminary, the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from Northwestern University.