Neal Walters earned his MAJS (Master of Arts in Jewish Studies) at the age of 53 to 2013 from Hebrew College (Boston).
He first tried to learn Hebrew were in the 80s with cassettes and a manual from the “Foreign Service Institute (FSI)”, which was one of the few courses you could find then (long before the internet). He only made it through the first 10 lessons or so, and was finding it rather complicated.
In The 90s, he started attending synagogues, and was on a business trip to Indianapolis, where he encountered his first Borders Book Store (now defunct, but was one of the nicest largest chain of bookstores there was). He found a couple of Hebrew books there, and one was a set of drills to practice the Hebrew alphabet and letters. That got Neal kick-started, but he really wished there was a computer program that would you let you click on the words, and hear the sound of the words.
That was the genesis of what you see here today. The first version, in about 1997, ran on a PC and was on five 3.5″ diskettes. Then the last 1990s, he found someone to record the words, and the first CD version was released. That was called “At Home with Hebrew”. The first name, “Hooked on Hebrew” got nixed by a legal letter from the company that makes “Hooked on Phonics.”
Overtime, and with higher broadband internet, many software programs were then switching to websites, so Neal began that project. He used very freelancers in Israel, India and Canada to get the first site up and working, but then it got hacked.
Only in 2024 did Neal have the renewed energy to get the site working again, with help from a programmer in Poland. By this time, Neal was teaching biblical Hebrew using the Weingreen text book, via Zoom, to fellow synagogue members. He recorded the every live class, and that is available on this site.
Neal had another Hebrew tutorial on CD called “Hebrew Kindergarten” that became available in about 2003. It was aimed for children and beginning adults to take them past the alphabet into simple little children stories that used kindergarten level words (based on the Dolch word lists for school grades). In 2024, that course was added to this website.
Then in late 2024, after wrapping up the biblical Hebrew course that lasted almost two years, he started teaching modern Hebrew from the HaYesod textbook, also on Zoom and being recorded. As of March 2025, there are lessons, recordings, flashcards, and more for the first 18 lessons from that book.
So now, HebrewGarden.com includes those 4 courses:
1) At Home With Hebrew – beginner learn the alphabet with drils
2) Hebrew Kindergarten – for those that know the alphabet, and want to move forward a little
(it includes many drills and great custom artwork).
3) Weingreen Biblcal Hebrew – 42 lessons over about 70-80 weeks recorded
4) HaYesod Modern Hebrew – 18 lessons and more being added each week.
Neal has worked in Information Technology for over 45 years, and also has a law degree and two business degrees from the 1980s. He also studied 3 years online with WebYeshiva (Halachic Mastery) course in about 2015-2017.
Neal currently leins (reads/chants) Torah each week at his synagogue in Dallas. Torah reading might be the next course added to this site.
