Avraham Yoffen (or Jofen; 1887 - April 19, 1970), also known as "Avraham Pinsker" [1] [2] was a rabbi, son-in-law to Yosef Yozel Horowitz, the Alter of Novardok and director of Novardok Yeshiva. He fled to the U.S. at the outbreak of World War II and opened a yeshiva in Borough Park. In 1962 he moved to and founded a kollel in Jerusalem. [3]
Yoffen supervised a network of satellite yeshivas in pre-World War II Poland and Ukraine, all named Yeshiva Bais Yosef. He used this name for the yeshiva he founded in Borough Park. [4]
In Europe, for a while, Yoffen had the assistance of Rabbi Gershon Liebman.
Yoffen was arrested by the Russian government [5] in 1921, along with some of his students. Two years later he went back to Poland. [1]
He was buried on Har HaMenuchot among numerous famous rabbis.
Yeshiva of Far Rockaway is a yeshiva located at 802 Hicksville Road, Far Rockaway, Queens in New York City. It comprises a high school, beis medrash, and Kollel. The school was founded by Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, and by Rabbi Nachman Bulman. Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr was the rosh yeshiva (dean) until his death in May 2024, and was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Moshe Perr. It has intensive Talmudic studies, and features the rosh yeshiva's musar (ethics) lectures in the Novardok tradition. The yeshiva also has a kollel, Kollel Ner Rochel Leah, for married students.
Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as The Steipler or The Steipler Gaon, was a Haredi rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and posek ("decisor" of Jewish law), and the author of Kehilos Yaakov, "a multi-volume Talmudic commentary".
Isser Zalman Meltzer, was a Jewish rabbi, rosh yeshiva and posek. He was known as the "Even HaEzel", after the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishneh Torah.
Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth (1918–2001) was an Orthodox rabbi who served as the longtime Chief Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadass Antwerp, Belgium. He was the founder and rosh yeshiva of the Mercaz HaTorah yeshiva in Jerusalem, and was a highly regarded Torah scholar.
The Novardok Yeshiva was one of the largest and most important yeshivas in pre-World War II Europe, and a force within the Mussar movement. It was the first of hundreds of a network of Musar yeshivas that were all called Novardok yeshivas.
Rabbi Naftoli Trop was a renowned Talmudist and Talmid Chacham. He served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Radun, Poland.
Har HaMenuchot is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem. The hilltop burial ground lies at the western edge of the city adjacent to the neighborhood of Givat Shaul, with commanding views of Mevaseret Zion to the north, Motza to the west, and Har Nof to the south. Opened in 1951 on 300 dunams of land, it has continually expanded into new sections on the northern and western slopes of the hill. As of 2008, the cemetery encompasses 580 dunams in which over 150,000 people are buried.
Yosef Yozel Horowitz, also Yosef Yoizel Hurwitz, known as the Alter of Novardok, was a student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the founder of the Musar movement. Horowitz was also a student of Rabbis Yitzchak Blazer and Simcha Zissel Ziv and spent some time in Brest, learning from Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik. He established the Novardok yeshiva in the city of Navahrudak. Additionally, he established a network of yeshivas in Dvinsk, Minsk, Warsaw, Berdichev, Lida and Zetl. Some of his discourses were recorded in the book Madregas Ha-Adam. The most basic and important theme in his book is Bitachon.
Gateshead Talmudical College, popularly known as Gateshead Yeshiva, is located in the Bensham area of Gateshead in North East England. It is the largest yeshiva in Europe and considered to be one of the most prestigious advanced yeshivas in the Orthodox world. The student body currently numbers approx. 350. Although students are mainly British, there are European, American, Canadians as well as some from South America, Australia and South Africa. Most students are Litvish, but up to a third are Hasidic.
The Mir Yeshiva, commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Lithuanian yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire. After relocating a number of times during World War II, it has evolved into three yeshivas: one in Jerusalem and two in Brooklyn, New York: the Mir Yeshiva, and Bais Hatalmud.
Dov Schwartzman, also called Berel Schwartzman, was a Russian-born American Haredi Jewish rabbi, educator, Talmudic scholar, and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Bais Hatalmud, which he founded in the Sanhedria Murhevet neighborhood of Jerusalem and led for over 40 years. He also founded and led the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia together with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, and co-founded the first yeshiva in Israel for baalei teshuva. He taught tens of thousands of students, many of whom received semicha from him.
Yerucham Gorelick was a distinguished Rosh yeshiva in the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) for forty years (1943–1983).
Yaakov Hai Zion Ades, also spelled Adas or Adess, was a Sephardi Hakham, Rosh Yeshiva, and Rabbinical High Court judge. As rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem, he raised thousands of students, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef; and Rabbi Yehuda Hakohen Rabin, Chief Rabbi of Bukharan Jewry in Israel.
Zvi Aryeh Benzion Rosenfeld was an American rabbi and educator credited with introducing Breslov Hasidism to the United States. Teaching children, teens, and adults in New York City for nearly three decades, he inspired a large percentage of his students from non-religious and Modern Orthodox homes to become Hasidic, and also acquainted them with the teachings of the 19th-century Hasidic master Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. He led the first official group of American Breslovers to Rebbe Nachman's grave in Uman, Ukraine, in 1963, and arranged for the first English translation of two key Breslov texts, Shivchei HaRan and Sichot HaRan. He was also an active supporter of the Breslov community in Israel, raising charity funds on behalf of needy families and the majority of funds for the construction of the Breslov Yeshiva in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovich, commonly referred to as the Baranovich Yeshiva or simply as Baranovich, was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Baranavichy, Belarus. Established circa 1906 by Rabbi Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, the Alter of Novardok (Navahrudak), it attracted leading rabbis such as Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky and Rabbi Avraham Yoffen as instructors, but was forced to disband with the outbreak of World War I. After the war, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, a student of the Radin Yeshiva who had been forced into exile in Smilavičy during the hostilities, agreed to serve as rosh yeshiva (dean) upon the recommendation of the Chofetz Chaim. In the interwar period, the yeshiva gained widespread fame and a large student body. Wasserman's style of teaching emphasized the simple meaning of the Talmudic texts and students advanced to the point that they were able to study independently. The yeshiva went into exile and disbanded a second time during World War II, and Wasserman and many of the students were murdered by Lithuanian Nazi sympathizers. Torah institutions named after the Baranovich Yeshiva and Wasserman were later established in the United States and Israel.
The Lomza Yeshiva was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Łomża, Poland, founded by Rabbi Eliezer Bentzion Shulevitz in 1883. Rabbi Yechiel Mordechai Gordon served as the yeshiva's rosh yeshiva for many years, and Rabbi Moshe Rosenstain served as the mashgiach. A branch of the yeshiva was established in Petach Tikvah, Palestine in 1926, where Rabbi Reuven Katz served as co-rosh yeshiva alongside Rabbi Gordon.
After the German invasion of Poland in World War II and the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, many yeshivas that had previously been part of Poland found themselves under Soviet communist rule, which did not tolerate religious institutions. The yeshivas therefore escaped to Vilnius in Lithuania on the advice of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. In Lithuania, the yeshivas were able to function fully for over a year and many of the students survived the Holocaust because of their taking refuge there, either because they managed to escape from there or because they were ultimately deported to other areas of Russia that the Nazis did not reach. Many students, however, did not manage to escape and were killed by the Nazis or their Lithuanian collaborators.
Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Baranavichy, Russia. He served as the mashgiach ruchani of the Baranovich Yeshiva there in the mid-twetienth century.
rosh yeshiva of the Novardok Yeshiva in Bialystok, Poland; New York and Yerushalayim
..Avraham Yoffen, dean of the Bais Yosef yeshiva in Europe and America.
... they arrested R' Avraham Yoffen, ...
Rabbi Avraham Yoffen Rosh Yeshiva of Novardok and rabbi of the 'Steipler'.