Our Story

The origins of the Hineni Method date back to Davey’s own Bar Mitzvah. At 13, he was a well-trained classical singer - but reading Hebrew was a struggle. Too embarrassed to ask for help, he memorized everything by ear.

Ironically, that same year, his synagogue invited him into a “cantor-in-training” program. By 15, Davey was tutoring his first student - even though he still couldn’t comfortably decode Hebrew himself. It should’ve been a disaster, but instead, it lit a spark. Davey began inventing his own system - something that actually made sense to his brain. He called it Hebrew Bootcamp.

Over the next 20 years, Davey taught hundreds of students using this method, continually refining it. And it worked. Really well.

Then came the aha moment. Ellen Barth - a veteran dyslexia specialist and the parent of one of Davey’s students - noticed something uncanny: Davey's method closely resembled best-practices for teaching dyslexic students to read in English.

That insight sparked a partnership.

Together, Davey and Ellen have reimagined B-Mitzvah prep from the ground up - rethinking fonts, pacing, multisensory strategies, and especially syllable division. The result is Hineni: a structured, multisensory Hebrew decoding program designed specifically for dyslexic learners.

Today, they co-teach students across the country via Zoom. Now, dyslexic students can prepare for B-Mitzvah with the tools and support they deserve.