Chana Katan

Chana Katan was born in 1958 in Manhattan

Chana Katan was born in New York in 1958, the eldest of 8 children of Max and Barbara Raiskin. Her father was a rabbi, educator and professor of Hebrew literature, and her mother held a doctorate in psychology. The family moved to Israel a month before the Yom Kippur War and settled in Ramat Aviv.

She attended Zeitlin High School and did national service at Kibbutz Shaalvim. In 1976 she studied Judaism and computers at the Jerusalem College for Women, then studied medicine at the Hebrew University. She began her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in 1989 and completed it with honors in 1994.

In 1999 she moved to Laniado Hospital in Netanya to set up an IVF unit, which she directed. She trained in sexology and in 2003 founded a sexology clinic at Shaare Zedek. She also founded a women's health center in Kiryat Sefer and taught in many medical and religious programs.

Since 2012 she has written a column in the weekly B'Sheva on medical ethics, family and Judaism. In 2018 she founded the Family Center at Orot Israel College in Elkana, and in 2024 she founded the women's group Neshot Tkuma. She is married to Rabbi Yoel Katan, has 13 children and lives in Shaalvim.