Rav Matthew and Yael are making their way to Rutgers University from Jerusalem where they lived for the past six years. A Brazilian native, Yael grew up in the equally-tropical South Florida and then reverse “snow-bird”ed to NJ to study Linguistics and Judaic Studies at Princeton University. Her passion for learning Torah has afforded her a seat in several Batei Midrash including Migdal Oz, Drisha, and Lindenbaum. She studied at Ohr Torah Stone’s Advanced Halacha program and is a certified Kallah teacher through the Eden Center. For the past four years, she has been serving as Halacha faculty at Midreshet Lindenbaum and worked for Hadran’s content creation team supporting Daf Yomi study. Yael is a word game nerd, avid thrifter, dance enthusiast, and aspiring post-retirement chef. Rav Matthew grew up in Silver Spring, though if you ask him today, he identifies as a proud Jerusalemite. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshivat Machanayim, and received Smicha from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. He holds degrees in Philosophy and Bioethics and has training in CPE. He has taught Torah at Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, Midreshet Amudim, and elsewhere. In 2013-14, Matthew was an OU-JLIC intern, and he’s grateful to finally be moving up the ranks. He’s fond of haikus, sewing them into the text, for you to find them. The Nitzanim (pluralized without an ‘s’) are thrilled to be at Rutgers – be in touch with questions about Jewish life on our campus!