Empowering the Jewish learning experience
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Our Mission
HESBER is a not-for profit organization dedicated to transforming Jewish education in schools and communities through providing new and exciting materials that bring Torah study to life. With a unique educational approach, graphically appealing materials, and varied educational media, HESBER strives to inspire a renaissance in Torah learning and scholarship.
What We Do
HESBER develops educational resources that are designed for enhancing Torah study of all ages. With materials designed for middle schools, high schools, and adult learning, HESBER aims to create a completely integrated, homogeneous and comprehensive curricular series spanning from elementary/middle school all the way through high school. After producing three separate curricula for high schools (on the topics of Kashrut, Shabbat, and Tefilla), HESBER has begun to develop middle school curricula as well, paving the way for an integrated curriculum.
HESBER's materials are marked by a unique style of instruction which allows Jewish law and values to be taught in an innovative new style, engaging the students and capturing their attention.
Our Team
Rabbi Binyamin Zimmerman, Director
Rabbi Binyamin Zimmerman, a seasoned educator, author, and innovator, serves as the Director of HESBER as well as the Chief Educator of the Zomet Institute of Halacha and Technology. He is the author of HESBER's "From the Source with Spirit" series, with books on the topics of Kashrut, Shabbat, Tefilla, and Bein Adam LeChavero among others. His books are studied by thousands of students each year throughout the English-speaking world. His eclectic background, including studying and later teaching in Yeshivat Har Etzion, studies in Yeshivat Mir and various other yeshivot, and an MS in Secondary Jewish Education from the Azrieli Graduate School as well as semicha from RIETS, has provided for an educational style built on varied experiences. His lectures on varied topics concerning the interface between halacha and modern technology, educational challenges of new social realities, and his teacher training workshops have brought him in front of international audiences across the Jewish spectrum. He lives in Alon Shevut with his wife and six children.
Yitzchak Bodner, Business Manager
Yitzchak Bodner serves as HESBER's Business Manager. He holds a B.Ed. in Jewish Education from Herzog College in Alon Shvut and an MBA from Ben Gurion University, where he studied as a Mandel Scholar. Yitzchak studied in the Otniel Hesder Yeshiva for six years and served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade. Besides his work at HESBER, Yitzchak also serves as the director of youth programing in Efrat, where he lives with his wife and four children.
Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, Founder of Halacha Education
Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, born in Tel-Aviv in 1968, is the grandson of the renowned poet and author, Yosef Zvi Rimon. He is a prolific author of Halachic works which reflect his unique approach, taking the reader from the sources to the practical application of Halacha in our modern reality. These include the “Shirat Miriam Haggadah for Pesach”, “Halacha for IDF Soldiers”, “Shemita”, “Yom Kippur Machzor”, “Birkat Ha’Mazon and Zemirot Shabbat”, “Arba’at Ha’Minim” for Succot and much more.
Rabbi Eli Ozarowski, Contributor
Rabbi Eli Ozarowski has been involved with the Mercaz Halacha since the inception of the English division, and has worked on the Kashrut, Shabbat, and Tefilla textbooks. In addition to his work at the Mercaz Halacha, he is also a translator and editor for the Steinsaltz English Gemara series as well as the forthcoming Steinsaltz Tanakh Series. Rabbi Ozarowski has taught at a number of post high school yeshivot and seminaries in Israel and currently teaches online for the Bonim Byachad Organization. He received semicha from RIETS, made aliya 9 years ago. He currently lives with his wife Zemira and 8 children in Yad Binyamin, where he also delivers frequent shiurim.
Rabbi Avraham Lifshitz, Contributor
Rabbi Avraham Lifshitz is a native of Scarsdale, New York, and a proud alum of Westchester Day School, Yeshiva University High School for Boys, and Bnei Akiva. He studied at Yeshivat Hakotel and at Yeshivat Torah BeTzion and served in the IDF. He has been a member of the chutznik educational staff at Yeshivat Hakotel, as a madrich, shoel u’meishiv, and teacher. After receiving semicha at Yeshivat Torah BeTzion, and completing a B.Ed. in Talmud and Tanach at Lifshitz College in Jerusalem, and the Straus-Amiel Shlichut Training Program, Rabbi Lifshitz served as Rosh Kollel Torah MiTzion and Educational Director at the Beit Midrash of Western Australia, a diverse modern-Orthodox community. Upon returning from Australia, Rabbi Lifshitz has been developing educational materials through the Halacha Education Center and Hesber, while serving as the Executive Director of the Garin Torani (Religious Seed Community) in Migdal HaEmek.
HESBER is a division of the Mercaz HaHalacha
(The Halacha Education Center, founded by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon)
OUR REACH
41+
schools
5,000+
students
240+
teachers
across 5 continents!
The need for HESBER and its materials is clearly born out from the numbers. In its third year of operations, HESBER has already reached thousands of students in more than 40 schools on 5 continents.
As secular-studies textbooks continue to advance in their presentation and custom-made formats, Jewish-studies classes have had trouble competing. The older books that were the text of choice in many Jewish schools were never written expressly for classroom instruction, contain no color, and oftentimes don't directly relate to the experiences of the student sitting in the classroom. The differences students felt between their multi-million dollar math and science textbooks rewritten the previous year and the Jewish studies texts that are reused every year created numerous challenges in the classroom.
HESBER has met this challenge by creating materials uniquely suited to the contemporary student. HESBER's resources combine traditional Torah scholarship with advanced educational theory and varied instructional media in order to create a learning environment that can rival any other.
TESTIMONIALS
The curriculum is an extraordinary experience… they have provided have had a profound impact upon teachers and students”
- Rabbi Leonard Matanky, Dean of Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago
“It presents the breadth and depth of the halakha (Jewish law) itself while providing the background and scaffolding necessary for the high school student. It exposes students to original sources, including contemporary responsa, in a manner that makes challenging topics cognitively as well as spiritually and emotionally accessible.”
- Rabbi Tully Harcsztark, Principal of the SAR Academy in Riverdale, NY
Are you interested in bringing HESBER to your school or community?
To learn more from a HESBER representative, please fill out the form below.