Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin (Hebrew: יְשִׁיבַת רַבֵּינוּ חַיִּים בֶּרלִין) is an American HarediLithuanian-type boys' and men's yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York.
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.
Historyedit
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]
Leadershipedit
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] When Schechter died in 2023, the leadership of the yeshiva passed to his son-in-law Shlomo Halioua.[10]
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]
The yeshiva maintains a summer location, Camp Morris, in Sullivan County, New York.[16] The Yeshiva also runs a summer youth program with the name Chaim Day Camp.
Notable alumniedit
Notable alumni include many who served in rabbinic capacities throughout the world.
A-Medit
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[17]
Shlomo Carlebach (1925–1994), rabbi, religious teacher, spiritual leader, composer, and singer[18]
^ ab(May 14, 1964) "Yeshiva Fire Loss Is $150,000; Brooklyn School Not Insured", The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
^"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.
^Dr. Yitzchok Levine (May 5, 2016). "Brooklyn Yeshivas In The 1930s (Part I)". the Jewish Press.
^Alvin Irwin Schiff (January 1966). The Jewish Day School in America. Jewish Education Committee Press. LCCN 66-19790.
^"Convert Bank to High School Use Alteration of the former Municipal Bank Building, Stone and Pitkin Aves". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 23, 1940.
^"Realty Activities; BROOKLYN BUILDING BOUGHT FROM BANK 7-Story Brownsville". The New York Times. January 26, 1940.
^"Boro Bundles Benefit". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 16, 1942. p. 10. Jewish School Raises $15,500 ... Yeshiva and Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin
^ abRabbi Binyomin Zev Karman (October 5, 2020). "Hijacked! TWA Flight 741 Revisited After 50 Years". Hamodia.
^Rudomin, Yitschak (August 27, 2023) "The Passing of Rav Aaron Schechter, a Chief Disciple of Rav Yitzchok Hutner", Arutz Sheva. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
^M. Samsonowitz (May 30, 2001). "The Rov Who Turned Baalebatim Into Bnei Yeshiva".
^"The Kriah Clinic". Rav Shlomo Freifeld zt"l related the following story: When Rav Shlomo was Mashgiach at Yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin, one bochur ...
^"Chaim Berlin Yeshiva". Negev Direct Marketing. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
^Binyamin Jolkovsky (November 15, 1998). "Status is ... for Orthodox Jews; Studying, Studying and More Studying". New York Times.
^Perkal, Harry (November 20, 2017) "Confessions Of A Chaim Berlin Yeshiva Graduate", Forward
^Feuerman, Alter Yisrael Shimon (September 25, 2013) "Remember the Often Invisible Non-Jews Who Help the Jewish World Function", Tablet. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
^"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."
^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."
^"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."
^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."
^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."
^"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.
^"Thousands of Free Torah Video and Audio Lectures By Hundreds of Rabbis and Speakers". TorahAnytime.com. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
External linksedit
Official website
Hagadah of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin at Greatschools.org
History of Jewish Brownsville: has section on Chaim Berlin