Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox school Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin (Template:Langx), officially Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, 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

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,<ref name="Fire">(May 14, 1964) "Yeshiva Fire Loss Is $150,000; Brooklyn School Not Insured", The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2019.</ref> thus making it the oldest yeshiva in Kings County.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Fire"/><ref name=ChaimBerlin.LLevineJP2016>Template:Cite news</ref> Through the help of philanthropist Jacob Rutstein,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in 1940 the yeshiva purchased the seven-story former Municipal Bank Building at Pitkin and Stone Avenues<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (now Mother Gaston Boulevard) in Brownsville.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Leadership

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

The founding Rosh Yeshiva, Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, was given the task in 1936, by Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz and a group of Brownsville NY community leaders, to establish a Yeshiva high school & post high school Yeshiva (”Bais Medrash”) in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY - a neighborhood of over 80,000 Jews. This new fledgling yeshiva was to be attached to a neighborhood elementary school named Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin (est. circa 1904,) with the new high school & bais medrash divisions to be named “Mesivta Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin.” (For the yeshiva elementary school’s first four decades, no person held the title of Rosh Yeshiva.)

In 1937, the Rosh Yeshiva Yaakov Moshe Shurkin learned that an acclaimed student of the Lithuanian yeshiva world, Yitzchok Hutner, had arrived in America. Shurkin, having taken notice of Hutner’s reputation as a genius, invited him to join the yeshiva’s faculty and oversee administrative affairs.

In 1942, with the yeshiva then having been established through a 3rd year post high school bais medrash, (Shurkin giving daily Talmudic lectures to those first 3 year post high school classes, and having hired 4 veteran Talmudic scholars to teach the high school grades,) Hutner entered the study hall and told Shurkin how he will now also give talmudic lectures and they will be to 4th year and higher post high school students, effectively a higher position than that of Shurkin’s. With Hutner’s powerful personality and Shurkin’s ultimate humility, Shurkin acquiesced, and Hutner began giving his own monthly lectures to those older students as rosh yeshiva from 1943 to 1980. Shurkin continued his daily teaching until his passing in 1963.

In the late 1970s, a branch was opened in Jerusalem called Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok (Fear of Isaac) "Pachad Yitzchok" being the title of Hutner's books.<ref name=RDavid.Hamodia>Template:Cite news</ref>

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,<ref name=RDavid.Hamodia/> 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.<ref>Rudomin, Yitschak (August 27, 2023) "The Passing of Rav Aaron Schechter, a Chief Disciple of Rav Yitzchok Hutner", Arutz Sheva. Retrieved September 28, 2023.</ref> Halioua died on 27 October 2024, after leading the yeshiva for only a year and a half.<ref>Yeshiva World News (October 27, 2024) "SHOCKING PETIRA: Rosh Yeshivas Chaim Berlin, Hagaon HaRav Shlomo Halioua ZT”L Niftar"</ref> The leadership then passed jointly to Halioua's son Yosef Halioua and son-in-law Tzvi Fink.<ref>Yeshiva World News (November 4, 2024)</ref>

The position of mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) has been held by (among others) Rabbis Avigdor Miller,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shlomo Freifeld,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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

Complete-block elementary school division on Avenue I, 2025

High school division on Coney Island Avenue, 2025

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The mesivta acts as a feeder school for the beth midrash.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Perkal, Harry (November 20, 2017) "Confessions Of A Chaim Berlin Yeshiva Graduate", The Forward</ref> For a time, while located in Far Rockaway,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the mesivta was headed by Shlomo Freifeld.<ref name="Freifeld">"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."</ref>

The yeshiva maintains a summer location, Camp Morris, in Sullivan County, New York.<ref>Feuerman, Alter Yisrael Shimon (September 25, 2013) "Remember the Often Invisible Non-Jews Who Help the Jewish World Function", Tablet. Retrieved September 13, 2019.</ref> The Yeshiva also runs a summer youth program in Brooklyn with the name Chaim Day Camp.

Notable alumni

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<ref>"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."</ref>
• Shlomo Carlebach (1925–1994), rabbi, religious teacher, spiritual leader, composer, and singer<ref>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."</ref>
• Yonasan Dovid David, co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
• Yaakov Feitman (born 1948), rabbi of Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi, Cedarhurst, New York<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Aharon Feldman (born 1932), rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College
• Shlomo Freifeld (1925–1990), founding rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Shor Yoshuv<ref name="Freifeld"/>
• David Weiss Halivni (1927–2022), rabbi and professor of Talmud<ref>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."</ref>
• David Hartman (1931–2013), American-Israeli rabbi and philosopher of contemporary Judaism, founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute.<ref>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."</ref>
• 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 MarinesTemplate: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<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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

• Yeshiva Torah Vodaath – another yeshiva in Brooklyn
• RIETS

External links

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