Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin

Yeshiva school in the United States

Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin

September 2020

Address

1605 Coney Island Avenue

Brooklyn, New York

United States

Information
Type| Yeshiva
Established| 1904
Affiliation| Lithuanian-style Haredi
Rosh yeshiva|

* Yonasan Dovid David
* Yosef Halioua
* Tzvi Fink

Website| rabbinicalacademyrabbichaimberlin

Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin (Hebrew: יְשִׁיבַת רַבֵּינוּ חַיִּים בֶּרלִין) is an American Haredi Lithuanian-type boys' and men's yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York. The school's divisions include a preschool, a yeshiva ketana (elementary school), a mesivta (high school), a college-level beth midrash, and Kollel Gur Aryeh, its post-graduate kollel.

## History

[edit]

Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin was established in 1904 as Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim in Brownsville, Brooklyn, by Jews who moved there from the Lower East Side of New York City,[1] thus making it the oldest yeshiva in Kings County.[2] At the suggestion of Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan), it was renamed in 1914 for his brother, Chaim Berlin, Chief Rabbi of Moscow and later Jerusalem, and who had also served in Valozhyn, from where several of the yeshiva's founders came.[1][3] Through the help of philanthropist Jacob Rutstein,[4] in 1940 the yeshiva purchased the seven-story former Municipal Bank Building at Pitkin and Stone Avenues[5] (now Mother Gaston Boulevard) in Brownsville.[6]

## Leadership

[edit]

Aaron Schechter (white beard) celebrating Purim in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin during the late 1970s.

The founding Rosh Yeshiva, Yitzchok Hutner joined the faculty during 1936–1937, and gave monthly lectures as rosh yeshiva from 1943 to 1980. In the late 1970s, a branch was opened in Jerusalem called Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok (Fear of Isaac).[7]

After Hutner's death, the New York yeshiva was headed by his disciple Aaron Schechter, and the Jerusalem branch was headed by his son-in-law Yonason David,[7] who also serves nominally as co-head of the New York branch. When Schechter died in 2023, the leadership of the yeshiva passed to his son-in-law Shlomo Halioua.[8] Halioua died on 27 October 2024 after leading the yeshiva for only a year and a half.[9] The leadership then passed jointly to Halioua's son Yosef Halioua and son-in-law Tzvi Fink.[10]

The position of mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) has been held by (among others) Rabbis Avigdor Miller,[11] Shlomo Freifeld,[12] Shlomo Carlebach, Shimon Groner, and Mordechai Zelig Shechter (a son of Aaron). It has been vacant since the latter's passing in September 2023.

## Divisions

[edit]

Chaim Berlin consists of a preschool, a yeshiva ketana (elementary school), a mesivta (high school), a college-level beth midrash, and Kollel Gur Aryeh, its post-graduate kollel division. Total enrollment for all divisions approaches 2,000 students.[13] The mesivta acts as a feeder school for the beth midrash.[14][15] For a time, while located in Far Rockaway,[16] the mesivta was headed by Shlomo Freifeld.[17]

The yeshiva maintains a summer location, Camp Morris, in Sullivan County, New York.[18] The Yeshiva also runs a summer youth program with the name Chaim Day Camp.

## Notable alumni

[edit]

Notable alumni include many who served in rabbinic capacities throughout the world.

* Shalom Z. Berger (born 1960), Senior Content Editor of the Koren Talmud Bavli
* Shlomo Carlebach (1925–2022), former mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin[19]
* Shlomo Carlebach (1925–1994), rabbi, religious teacher, spiritual leader, composer, and singer[20]
* Yonasan Dovid David, co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
* Yaakov Feitman (born 1948), rabbi of Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi, Cedarhurst, New York[21]
* Aharon Feldman (born 1932), rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College
* Shlomo Freifeld (1925–1990), founding rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Shor Yoshuv[17]
* David Weiss Halivni (1927–2022), rabbi and professor of Talmud[22]
* David Hartman (1931–2013), American-Israeli rabbi and philosopher of contemporary Judaism, founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute.[23]
* Yitzhak Aharon Korff (born 1949), Grand Rabbi of Zvhil-Mezbuz, Boston, and The Jerusalem Great Synagogue
* Simcha Krauss (1937–2022), retired rabbi of the Young Israel of Hillcrest, Queens, and leader of the Religious Zionists of America
* David Lefkowitz (1875–1955), chaplain United States Marines[citation needed]
* Aharon Lichtenstein (1933–2015), rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Alon Shevut, and rosh kollel of Yeshiva University's Gruss Kollel, Jerusalem
* Yaakov Perlow (1931–2020), the Novominsker Rebbe of Borough Park[24][25]
* Yechiel Perr (1935–2024), rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva of Far Rockaway
* Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld (1922–1978), Polish–American rabbi and educator associated with the Breslov Hasidic movement
* Nota Schiller (1937–2025), rosh yeshiva of Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem
* Ahron Soloveichik (1917–2001), taught at Yeshiva University, Hebrew Theological College and Brisk Rabbinical College
* Pinchas Stolper (1931–2022), former Executive Vice-President of the Orthodox Union and founder of NCSY
* Noah Weinberg (1930–2009), co-founder of Yeshivas Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem; founder of Yeshivas Aish HaTorah
* Yaakov Weinberg (1923–1999), rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College
* Yisroel Eliyahu Weintraub (1932–2010), rabbi

## See also

[edit]

* Yeshiva Torah Vodaath – another yeshiva in Brooklyn
* RIETS

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b (May 14, 1964) "Yeshiva Fire Loss Is $150,000; Brooklyn School Not Insured", The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
2. ^ "Kabbalas Hatorah at Three Landmark Flatbush Yeshivos". Flatbush Jewish Journal. May 13, 2010. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
3. ^ Levine, Yitzchok (May 5, 2016). "Brooklyn Yeshivas In The 1930s (Part I)". The Jewish Press.
4. ^ "Boro Bundles Benefit". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 16, 1942. p. 10\. "Jewish School Raises $15,500 ... Yeshiva and Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin"
5. ^ "Convert Bank to High School Use Alteration of the former Municipal Bank Building, Stone and Pitkin Aves". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 23, 1940.
6. ^ "Brooklyn Building Bought From Bank: 7-Story Brownsville". The New York Times. January 26, 1940.
7. ^ a b Karman, Binyomin Zev (October 5, 2020). "Hijacked! TWA Flight 741 Revisited After 50 Years". Hamodia.
8. ^ Rudomin, Yitschak (August 27, 2023) "The Passing of Rav Aaron Schechter, a Chief Disciple of Rav Yitzchok Hutner", Arutz Sheva. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
9. ^ Yeshiva World News (October 27, 2024) "SHOCKING PETIRA: Rosh Yeshivas Chaim Berlin, Hagaon HaRav Shlomo Halioua ZT”L Niftar"
10. ^ Yeshiva World News (November 4, 2024)
11. ^ M. Samsonowitz (May 30, 2001). "The Rov Who Turned Baalebatim Into Bnei Yeshiva".
12. ^ "The Kriah Clinic". "Rav Shlomo Freifeld zt"l related the following story: When Shlomo was Mashgiach at Yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin, one bochur ..."
13. ^ "Chaim Berlin Yeshiva". Negev Direct Marketing. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
14. ^ Jolkovsky, Binyamin (November 15, 1998). "Status is ... for Orthodox Jews; Studying, Studying and More Studying". The New York Times.
15. ^ Perkal, Harry (November 20, 2017) "Confessions Of A Chaim Berlin Yeshiva Graduate", The Forward
16. ^ Alvin Irwin Schiff (January 1966). The Jewish Day School in America. Jewish Education Committee Press. LCCN 66-19790.
17. ^ a b "Shlomo Freifeld, Rabbi, 66", The New York Times, October 8, 1990. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Rabbi Freifeld was born in Brooklyn and was a disciple of Rabbi Isaac Hutner at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin. He later became dean of men there before founding Sh'or Yoshuv in 1967."
18. ^ Feuerman, Alter Yisrael Shimon (September 25, 2013) "Remember the Often Invisible Non-Jews Who Help the Jewish World Function", Tablet. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
19. ^ "Petirah of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt'l, Former Mashgiach at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin", Yeshiva World News, July 21, 2022. Accessed September 19, 2023. "YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt'l, the former mashgiach at Yeshivas Rabeinu Chaim Berlin. He was 96."
20. ^ Reb Shlomo Carlebach Biography, Shlomo Carlebach Foundation. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Shlomo also studied at the Chaim Berlin Yeshiva in Brooklyn, and in 1954, received rabbinic ordination from its Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner."
21. ^ "Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi". Kbyt.org. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
22. ^ Berger, Joseph (July 17, 2022) "David Weiss Halivni, Controversial Talmudic Scholar, Dies at 94", The New York Times. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Although he knew no English, his reputation as a Talmudic scholar had reached Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, which invited him to undertake advanced Talmud study."
23. ^ Winer, Stuart (February 10, 2013) "Liberal Rabbi-philosopher David Hartman Dies", The Times of Israel. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Born in 1931 in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, Hartman attended Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and the Lubavitch Yeshiva."
24. ^ "Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, Head of Hasidic Dynasty in Brooklyn". The New York Times. April 16, 2020. "He attended Yeshiva Toras Chaim and Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn and Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J."
25. ^ "Thousands of Free Torah Video and Audio Lectures By Hundreds of Rabbis and Speakers". TorahAnytime.com. Retrieved September 12, 2019.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* Hagadah of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
* Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin at Greatschools.org
* History of Jewish Brownsville: has section on Chaim Berlin

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