Machon Chana is a private religious college for Jewish women affiliated with the Chabad Hasidic movement and geared toward Baalot Teshuva – women from secular backgrounds who become more observant.
[1] The school was founded in 1972 as an institution educating women from non-Orthodox backgrounds in an orthodox Jewish environment.
[2] The Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson saw this institution as a way to introduce young Jewish women from non-orthodox backgrounds to orthodox Judaism through academic means.
[4] The goals of Machon Chana as described in its mission statement are: Hundreds of women from all over the world study at the school annually.
The backgrounds of the women attending the school vary with some arriving not knowing the Hebrew alphabet.