After being criticized for the absence of female lecturers from its annual gynecology conference, the Puah Institute decided Monday to hold another gynecology conference, this time exclusively for women.

The event will be held in about half a year. The institute, which works with Jewish couples with fertility problems according to Jewish Law, clarified that it would be an inseparable part of the annual conference, in which only men are allowed to speak.

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"The decision on the annual conference's summer session was made following Puah Institute's desire to create unity among the Jewish people and prove that the institute's intention is to glorify women, and not to exclude them in any way," the institute said in a statement.

"As opposed to public discussions causing a rift among the Jewish people, it is well known that the Puah Institute helps all parts of the population regardless of their religion, race or gender, and lets each one of them express themselves."

In a special press release, the Puah Institute said the women-only session will be held around the date of death of the institute's founder, Israel 's former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu , "from whom we absorbed the way of unity and respect for each and every person."

The institute added that it planned to hold a women's conference every year, rather than settle for a one-time event.

The institute went on to say that its workers felt great pain in light of "the separation and polarization different bodies are trying to lead through the turbid wave of 'exclusion of women.'"

The statement noted, however, that following the reports on the absence of female lecturers from the institute's conference, it received a lot of support from the public for insisting on halachic principles, maintaining modesty rules and taking the feelings of the event's participants into consideration.

The institute thanked "all the senior doctors who called to declare their support and expressed their desire to speak at the conference, instead of the doctors who excluded themselves."

The Puah Institute conference aims to create a connection between medical innovations with Halacha by presenting rabbis, professionals and counselors with medical and halachic innovations that may help them in their work.