Baruch Sorotzkin

Last updated
Rephoel Baruch Sorotzkin
Rabbi Baruch Sorotzkin.jpg
Personal
BornFebruary 5, 1917
DiedFebruary 10, 1979 (aged 62)
Religion Judaism
NationalityLithuanian & American
SpouseRachel Bloch
Children Yitzchok Sorotzkin
Binyomin Sorotzkin
Eliyahu Meir Sorotzkin
Rassia Busel
Chenia Schulman
Shoshana Herzka
Chassie Brog
Parent(s) Zalman Sorotzkin and Miriam Gordon
Denomination Haredi Orthodox Judaism
Jewish leader
Predecessor Chaim Mordechai Katz
Successor Mordechai Gifter
Position Rosh Yeshiva
Yeshiva Telz Yeshiva
Began1964
EndedFebruary 10, 1979
Buried Har HaMenuchot

Rephoel Baruch [1] Sorotzkin [2] (February 5, 1917 - February 10, 1979) was the Rosh Yeshiva of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland and among American Jewry's foremost religious leaders.

Contents

He was born on February 5, 1917 (13th of Shevat, 5677) in Zhetl, in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). His father, Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin was the town's rabbi. As a young man, Sorotzkin studied under Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman in the Baranovich Yeshiva, and then under Rabbi Baruch Ber Lebovitz in Kamenitz.

In 1940, Rabbi Boruch Sorotzkin married Rochel Bloch, daughter of the Telzer Rav and Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch.

Sorotzkin was involved in the "tension" over visas needed to flee: the two factions were "those from Lithuanian versus Polish Yeshivot;" [3] control of the Kobe committee was by "students from the Polish yeshivot." [4] The rabbi and his wife fled Europe at the start of World War II, via Shanghai, and made their way to the United States. There, they joined his wife's uncles (and his own cousins) Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz who had re-established the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio.

Teaching

In 1943 Sorotzkin began delivering classes in the yeshiva. In 1953 Sorotzkin was appointed associate dean of the yeshiva.

In 1962 Sorotzkin became dangerously ill and the name Rephoel was added to his name. [2] In 1964, when the Telz Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz died, Sorotzkin together with Rabbi Mordechai Gifter assumed the leadership of the yeshiva.

In the Telzer tradition, Rabbi Sorotzkin extended his sphere of activities to include even more areas of communal responsibility, such as working for Chinuch Atzmai, Torah Umesorah [2] and Agudath Israel of America where he served as one of the youngest member of its Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah - Council of Torah Sages.

In 1977, with the establishment of the Yeshiva in Israel, Rabbi Mordechai Gifter left to head the Yeshiva in Israel.

Sorotzkin died on Saturday, February 10, 1979.

Family

His Brothers:

His daughter Rebetzin Rassia Busel died in March 1998.[ citation needed ]

His sons:

His sons-in-law:

Many of his lectures on Talmud have been posthumously published, under the title Sefer Habinah V’habrachah, [11] by his children. Rabbi Sorotzkin's wife died in November 2006. [12]

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References

  1. Anglicized Boruch by Jewish Telegraphic Agency/JTA
  2. 1 2 3 "Rabbi Boruch Sorotzkin Dead at 61". JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency. February 12, 1979.
  3. Efraim Zuroff (1999). The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945. KTAV Publishing. ISBN   978-0-88125-666-6.
  4. Silberklang, David (1979). Yad VaShem studies (Volume 13). p. 344. ISBN   978-1571818485.
  5. {{cite web |url=https://tiferet-auctions.co.il/auction/263-tiferet-24-rare-en/lot-55-6/
  6. {{cite web |url=https://www.yadmeir.co.il/?CategoryID=570&ArticleID=2685
  7. {{cite web |url= https://www.tidhar.tourolib.org/tidhar/view/3/1491
  8. "Petira of Hagaon HaRav Elya Meir Sorotzkin ZATZAL, Rosh Yeshiva of Springfield". TheYeshivaWorld.com. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  9. "Rav Elya Meir Sorotzkin zt"l". Matzav.com. November 27, 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  10. "Petirah of Harav Yaakov Busel ZT"L, Rosh Yeshivah Edison [UPDATED]". November 3, 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  11. "This Day In History 13 Shevat/February 9". Hamodia .
  12. Rebbitzen Rochel Sorotzkin A”H