Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin

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.

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 and Shlomo Halioua (current). Past: Aharon Schechter, Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, Yitzchak Hutner
Mashgiach ruchani	Past: Mordechai Zelig Schechter, Avigdor Miller, Shlomo Freifeld, Shlomo Carlebach, Shimon Groner

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.

History

The school 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.^[3][1]

Chaim Berlin's Mesivta (high school) was, for a while, located in Far Rockaway^[4] headed by Shlomo Freifeld.^[5]

The yeshiva's Stone & Pitkin (Brownsville) seven story building, formerly known as the Municipal Bank Building,^[6] was purchased in 1940;^[7] Jacob Rutstein was their major philanthropist. ^[8]

Leadership

 

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

The founding rosh yeshiva, Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, served from 1936 until his death in 1963.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).^[9]

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.^[9] Rabbi Shechter has passed away on the Seventh of Elul.

Currently, the yeshiva is headed by Rabbi Shlomo Halioua, who is a son-in-law of Rabbi Aaron Schechter. Halioua was appointed to be Rosh HaYeshiva by his father-in-law and has played the role of giving the Rosh HaYeshiva lecture for the past few years. Halioua was known as an "illui" from a young age and his lectures are marveled at by many.

The position of mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) has been held by (among others) Avigdor Miller,^[10] Shlomo Freifeld,^[11] Shlomo Carlebach, Shimon Groner, and Mordechai Zelig Shechter.

Divisions

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.^[12] The mesivta acts as a feeder school for the beth midrash.^{[13] [14]}

The yeshiva maintains a summer location, Camp Morris, in Sullivan County, New York.^[15] The Yeshiva also runs a summer youth program with the name Chaim Day Camp.

Notable alumni

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

A-M

• 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^[16]
• Shlomo Carlebach (1925–1994), rabbi, religious teacher, spiritual leader, composer, and singer^[17]
• Yonasan Dovid David, co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
• Yaakov Feitman (born 1948), rabbi of Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi, Cedarhurst, New York^[18]
• Aharon Feldman (born 1932), rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College
• Shlomo Freifeld (1925–1990), founding rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Shor Yoshuv^[19]
• David Weiss Halivni (1927–2022), rabbi and professor of Talmud^[20]
• David Hartman (1931–2013), American-Israeli rabbi and philosopher of contemporary Judaism, founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute.^[21]
• 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

N-Z

• Yaakov Perlow (1931–2020), the Novominsker Rebbe of Borough Park^[22][23]
• Yechiel Perr (born 1935), 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 (born 1937), 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

• Yeshiva Torah Vodaath – another yeshiva in Brooklyn
• RIETS

References

1. (May 14, 1964) "Yeshiva Fire Loss Is $150,000; Brooklyn School Not Insured", The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
2. . Flatbush Jewish Journal. May 13, 2010. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
3. Dr. Yitzchok Levine (May 5, 2016). "Brooklyn Yeshivas In The 1930s (Part I)". the Jewish Press.
4. Alvin Irwin Schiff (January 1966). The Jewish Day School in America. Jewish Education Committee Press. LCCN 66-19790.
5. "Shlomo Freifeld, Rabbi, 66". The New York Times. October 8, 1990.
6. "Convert Bank to High School Use Alteration of the former Municipal Bank Building, Stone and Pitkin Aves". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 23, 1940.
7. "Realty Activities; BROOKLYN BUILDING BOUGHT FROM BANK 7-Story Brownsville". The New York Times. January 26, 1940.
8. "Boro Bundles Benefit". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 16, 1942. p. 10. Jewish School Raises $15,500 ... Yeshiva and Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin
9. Rabbi Binyomin Zev Karman (October 5, 2020). "Hijacked! TWA Flight 741 Revisited After 50 Years". Hamodia.
10. M. Samsonowitz (May 30, 2001). "The Rov Who Turned Baalebatim Into Bnei Yeshiva".
11. "The Kriah Clinic". Rav Shlomo Freifeld zt"l related the following story: When Rav Shlomo was Mashgiach at Yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin, one bochur ...
12. "Chaim Berlin Yeshiva". Negev Direct Marketing. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
13. Binyamin Jolkovsky (November 15, 1998). "Status is ... for Orthodox Jews; Studying, Studying and More Studying". New York Times.
14. Perkal, Harry (November 20, 2017) "Confessions Of A Chaim Berlin Yeshiva Graduate", Forward
15. Feuerman, Alter Yisrael Shimon (September 25, 2013) "Remember the Often Invisible Non-Jews Who Help the Jewish World Function", Tablet. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
16. "Petirah of Rav Shlomo Carlebach ZT”L, Former Mashgiach at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin", The Yeshiva World, 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."
17. 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."
18. "Kehillas Bais Yehuda Tzvi". Kbyt.org. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
19. "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."
20. Berger, Joseph. "David Weiss Halivni, Controversial Talmudic Scholar, Dies at 94", The New York Times, July 17, 2022. 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."
21. Winer, Stuart. "Liberal rabbi-philosopher David Hartman dies", The Times of Israel, February 10, 2013. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Born in 1931 in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, Hartman attended Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and the Lubavitch Yeshiva."
22. "Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, Head of Hasidic Dynasty in Brooklyn". 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.
23. "Thousands of Free Torah Video and Audio Lectures By Hundreds of Rabbis and Speakers". TorahAnytime.com. Retrieved 2019-09-12.

External links

• Hagadah of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
• Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin at Greatschools.org
• Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin
• History of Jewish Brownsville: has section on Chaim Berlin

40°37′38″N 73°57′47″W / 40.62718°N 73.96303°W / 40.62718; -73.96303