My name is Rachael Woren. I am originally from Albany and I just loved it so much that I decided to stay around here. I grew up in a home where my parents did not know much about Judaism or the Hebrew language. When i was born they decided they wanted me to be more connected with the Jewish religion so i went to the Jewish community center and then my grade school years were spent at the Hebrew Academy. In kindergarten I started learning Hebrew and it was just a connection and i have loved it since then.

When I graduated eighth grade i went to a public school where I could no longer continue my Judaic studies education so my sophomore year of high school I registered to take Hebrew at SUNY Albany. Everybody there was so welcoming and I enjoyed the class a lot. So when I graduated from high school i was in a toss up between Hofstra and SUNY Albany, as you can tell I picked SUNY.

Now I am junior here and I loved and will continue to love every moment of my education. The Judaic Studies department has such a variety of courses that interest me and i hope i will get to take all if not most of them .This semester I am a TA for an elementary Hebrew course and I can only hope the students will feel as connected to the language as I was.

My major is Judaic studies and I would never think of changing it to anything else. Thanks to the whole department for all that it has done.