About us
About us, about our administration & faculty
Lamdeinu is a center for high-level, accessible and inspiring Torah learning in Teaneck, New Jersey. It is housed in the beautiful Beit Midrash of Congregation Beth Aaron. Classes are given weekday mornings and afternoons, Monday through Thursday. There are lectures during the evening as well as Rosh Chodesh celebrations and other events.
Most classes also available on Zoom
Our Team
Meet Us
Lamdeinu was founded by Dean Rachel Friedman, for many years the Associate Dean and Chair of Tanakh at Drisha Institute in New York City. Ms. Friedman is a noted author and lecturer in Bible, liturgy and parshanut. She has served as a scholar-in-residence at synagogues, schools and other venues throughout North America and beyond. She has an MA in Bible from the Bernard Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University and a JD from Columbia University School of Law. Contact Dean Friedman at DeanLamdeinu1@gmail.com
Foundress
Debbie Negari is Lamdeinu’s Program Director. Debbie received her BFA in Accessories Design from FIT. Debbie worked as an Accessories Designer and Product Coordinator. She worked for many high end shoe design companies, and then started her own business designing turban headbands, selling them online and at Shul Boutiques. Contact Debbie at Lamdeinu613@gmail.com.
Program Director
Rabbi Gedalyah Berger serves as a Ra”M in the Graduate Program for Women in Advanced Talmudic Studies at Yeshiva University, and as a maggid shi’ur at the Yo’etzet Halakhah program of Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center. He recently joined the Orthodox Union as Adult Education Coordinator in the Dept. of Synagogue Services. Rabbi Berger graduated from Yeshiva College in 1994 with a B.A. in physics, studied for three years at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel under the tutelage of HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, received his semikhah from RIETS in 1998, and was a fellow of RIETS’s Bella and Harry Wexner Kollel Elyon.
Rabbi
kollel fellow. He is the Morah D’Atra at the Jewish Center of Teaneck and a Rebbe at Torah Academy of Bergen County. Rabbi Fridman is a graduate of Columbia College and Yeshivat Har Etzion and received his smikha from RIETS.
Rabbi
Rabbi Hayyim Angel is the National Scholar of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals (jewishideas.org). He also teaches advanced Bible courses at Yeshiva University, and lectures widely. He has published over 100 scholarly articles, primarily in Bible, and is author or editor of thirteen books. He has a B.A. in Jewish Studies from Yeshiva College, an M.A. in Bible from the Bernard Revel Graduate School, and an M.S. in Jewish Education from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education.He received his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He previously served for seventeen years as Rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York. He lives in Teaneck with his wife and three children.
Rabbi
Rabbi Dr. Yitzhak Berger, a graduate and musmakh of Yeshiva University, is Associate Professor of Bible and Head of the Hebrew Division at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He has published numerous studies on the Bible as Literature and on Medieval Biblical Interpretation, and has recently published a book on Sefer Yonah entitled Jonah in the Shadows of Eden.
Rabbi
Rabbanit Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld is the director of education and community engagement at Sefaria.org. She has taught Talmud and Jewish Law at the Drisha Institute, and served as JLIC educator and Director of Education at the Center for Jewish Life – Hillel at Princeton University. Sara served as a intern at United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, TX, and as a Beit Midrash Fellow at S.A.R. Academy in Riverdale, NY. She lectures in synagogues and Hillels on a variety of topics, and also teaches Hilkhot Nidah to brides and engaged couples.Sara holds a BA in Judaica and Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and has studied Talmud and Jewish Law at Midreshet Lindenbaum, Drisha, Pardes, Nishmat,and Beit Morashah. She lives in Chicago, IL with her husband and four children.
Director of education and community engagement at Sefaria.org
Channa Lockshin Bob has an MA in Religion from Columbia University and a Certificate in Talmud and Halacha from Drisha's Scholars Circle. Channa teaches Gemara at Midreshet Amudim and also works in the Judaica Collection of the National Library of Israel. A Toronto native, she now lives in Modiin with her husband and three children.
Educator
Lamdeinu was founded by Dean Rachel Friedman, for many years the Associate Dean and Chair of Tanakh at Drisha Institute in New York City. Ms. Friedman is a noted author and lecturer in Bible, liturgy and parshanut. She has served as a scholar-in-residence at synagogues, schools and other venues throughout North America and beyond. She has an MA in Bible from the Bernard Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University and a JD from Columbia University School of Law. Contact Dean Friedman at DeanLamdeinu1@gmail.com
Foundress
Debbie Negari is Lamdeinu’s Program Director. Debbie received her BFA in Accessories Design from FIT. Debbie worked as an Accessories Designer and Product Coordinator. She worked for many high end shoe design companies, and then started her own business designing turban headbands, selling them online and at Shul Boutiques. Contact Debbie at Lamdeinu613@gmail.com.
Program Director
Rabbi Gedalyah Berger serves as a Ra”M in the Graduate Program for Women in Advanced Talmudic Studies at Yeshiva University, and as a maggid shi’ur at the Yo’etzet Halakhah program of Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center. He recently joined the Orthodox Union as Adult Education Coordinator in the Dept. of Synagogue Services. Rabbi Berger graduated from Yeshiva College in 1994 with a B.A. in physics, studied for three years at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel under the tutelage of HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, received his semikhah from RIETS in 1998, and was a fellow of RIETS’s Bella and Harry Wexner Kollel Elyon.
Rabbi
kollel fellow. He is the Morah D’Atra at the Jewish Center of Teaneck and a Rebbe at Torah Academy of Bergen County. Rabbi Fridman is a graduate of Columbia College and Yeshivat Har Etzion and received his smikha from RIETS.
Rabbi
Rabbi
Rabbi
Director of education and community engagement at Sefaria.org
