Teen Beit Midrash

Our Faculty

Rabba Claudia Marbach
Director

Rabba Claudia’s most exciting moments in teaching are when her students understand complex ideas for the first time. She loves enabling people to access traditional texts. Rabba Claudia likes meeting her students where they are at in terms of skills and approaches to learning.

Rabba Claudia Marbach was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat in June 2018. Before that she developed and taught the Judaic Studies curriculum to middle school students at the pluralistic Jewish Community Day School of Boston where she worked for fifteen years.

Rabba Claudia also teaches Talmud to adults, mentors teachers in Jewish day schools and writes a weekly blog on the parsha. She has studied chaplaincy at Hebrew Senior Life in Dedham, MA. She likes reading, crafts and taking care of her chickens. In addition to semicha, Rabba Claudia has a BA from Barnard College, a JD from Boston University and has studied at Michlalah and Pardes in Jerusalem and Drisha in New York.

Risa Dunbar
Program and Beit Midrash Assistant

Risa Dunbar is a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, returning from her year in Jerusalem. Originally from the San Francisco, Bay Area, she graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Anthropology, with minors in Near Eastern and Jewish Studies and Creative writing, from Brandeis University. She then supported progressive fundraising efforts at the New Israel Fund, and has since served in a variety of Jewish ritual and leadership roles. She has served in a variety of Jewish ritual, educational, and leadership roles at places such as Camp Ramah in Northern California, Lehrhaus: A Jewish Tavern and House of Learning, BBYO, and as the rabbinic intern at Ohav Shalom in Albany, NY. Her writing has been previously featured in Gashmius Magazine and the “70 Faces of Torah” podcast for Hebrew College.