Rabbi Yudi and Yehudis Namdar (née Telsner) are joining Rabbi Eli and Nechama Backman at Chabad at the University of Maryland – College Park to help serve the 6,500 Jewish students, including over 1,000 Jewish freshmen each year – one of the largest and most dynamic Jewish student bodies in the country.

Rabbi Yudi and Yehudis Namdar (née Telsner) are joining the team at Chabad at the University of Maryland – College Park to help serve and inspire a vibrant Jewish community on campus. UMD is home to approximately 6,500 Jewish students, including over 1,000 Jewish freshmen each year – making it one of the largest and most dynamic Jewish student bodies in the country.

The Namdars were appointed and will be working closely with Rabbi Eli and Nechama Backman, who have directed Chabad at UMD for over three decades. While serving the wider campus community in all aspects of Jewish life, they will be focusing on outreach to the large freshman class and developing expanded programming for Jewish women. They were approved by Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, director of Chabad activities to the Maryland region.

Rabbi Yudi Namdar grew up on shlichus in Gothenburg, Sweden, and came to the U.S. at age 13 to pursue yeshiva studies in America, continuing on to England and Eretz Yisroel. He then spent four years teaching in Yerushalayim, at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies – serving both the Jewish Studies Program and the Post-High School Program.

Yehudis Namdar (née Telsner) grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY. After completing Seminary in Eretz Yisroel,she taught at Bnos Menachem Elementary and High School in Crown Heights. After the Namdars got married, they moved to Yerushalayim, where Yehudis taught at the Mayanot Women’s Program and Oryah Seminary, nurturing Jewish girls and young women from around the world.

Joining the Namdars on this exciting journey is their baby daughter, Malka, who is already making friends wherever she goes.

The couple shared, “Inspired by the Rebbe’s vision of reaching every Jew, we are thrilled to be joining the UMD campus community. We look forward to engaging every student, especially our many freshmen and young women, in a way that they will feel inspired, valued, and connected, and consider Chabad their Jewish home away from home.”

Support the Vision

With such a large student population to serve, the Namdars are inviting friends and supporters to help launch and grow this vital expansion of Chabad at UMD.

Your partnership will help us continue and expand powerful Jewish experiences for students across campus -including Shabbat dinners, social events, learning opportunities, women’s programming, holiday events, and one-on-one connections.

Together, we can build something meaningful from day one. To support this new and exciting chapter in Jewish life at UMD, visit charidy.com/umd25