What to expect

You have decided that you want to become Jewish. That decision is the beginning of a long course of study, and Lomdim Academy exists to walk you through it. The word lomdim simply means "learners" — people who study. That is what you are now, and that is what this Academy is built around.

  • Plain language, no assumed background. Every Hebrew term and every rule is explained from scratch. You are never expected to already know something.

  • Every rabbi introduced before he is quoted. You always learn who an authority was, when and where he lived, and why his ruling carries weight.

  • A clear, practical bottom line. Each lesson ends by telling you exactly what is expected of you in practice — and where the honest answer is "ask your own rabbi," we say so.

Administrator & Teacher

Rabbi Michael Kohn

Rabbi Michael Kohn

Teacher

My name is Rabbi Michael Kohn, and I run Lomdim Academy. I studied at two yeshivot in Israel — Yeshivat Sulam Yaakov and Yeshivat Har Etzion, one of the best-known centres of advanced Torah study (a yeshiva is an institution for full-time Torah learning). I received semicha — rabbinic ordination, the formal qualification to rule on questions of Jewish law — from the Pirchei Shoshanim program and from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (1931–2020), who was one of the most respected legal authorities of his generation and headed a rabbinical court in Jerusalem. I currently serve as the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Oslo, and I am about to complete a master's degree in Jewish Education from the London School of Jewish Studies. I built this program for one kind of student: an adult who has decided to become Jewish and now has to actually learn how to live as one, often without any Jewish upbringing to lean on. The course takes the real questions you will face — in prayer, in the kitchen, on Shabbat, on the holidays — and teaches you to answer them plainly and correctly, one at a time. You bring the willingness to learn. I will make sure nothing is left unexplained.

FAQ

  • Do I need to know any Hebrew to start?

    No. We assume you are starting from zero.

  • Does finishing this program mean I am Jewish?

    A course teaches you; it does not convert you. A conversion to Judaism is carried out by a beit din, a rabbinical court of three qualified rabbis, who oversee the process and confirm when it is complete. What this program does is prepare you: it gives you the knowledge and the practical skills to stand before a beit din ready, and to live as a knowledgeable Jew afterward.

  • Which kind of conversion is this for?

    I teach with the the an aim for you to pass an orthodox beit din.

  • How long does it take?

    The honest answer is that becoming a knowledgeable Jew is not something that happens on a fixed deadline. The program is structured to move steadily, one practical topic at a time, and how quickly you progress depends partly on you.

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