Rabbi Dr. Moshe Gottesman | |
---|---|
Personal | |
Born | July 18, 1932 |
Died | December 3, 2018 |
Religion | Judaism |
Nationality | United States of America |
Spouse | Sondra Gottesman |
Denomination | Orthodox Religious Zionist |
Alma mater | Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Hebrew Theological College, Honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University |
Position | Dean Emeritus |
Yeshiva | Hebrew Academy of Nassau County |
Yahrtzeit | 26 Kislev (Chanuka, Day 2) |
Buried | Eretz HaChaim Cemetery, Israel |
Residence | Oceanside, New York |
Semicha | Hebrew Theological College |
Rabbi Moshe Gottesman was born in Canada and has worked in Israel, Chicago and Long Island, New York. He held the position of dean for the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County for almost 20 years. [1] Gottesman was also the director of tours for Camp Sdei Chemed International for over 35 years. [2] Gottesman has received many awards, including, the Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Yeshiva University. [3]
Gottesman received his formal education and semicha in Chicago, Illinois, where he studied secular studies at the Chicago Jewish Academy (which is now known as Ida Crown Jewish Academy) and Judaic studies at the Hebrew Theological College (HTC). [4] While studying at the HTC, his main rabbinic influences included Rabbis Yisrael Mendel Kaplan and Chaim Kreiswirth. . [5]
Gottesman's tenure at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County (HANC) began in 1960. After a year of teaching in Chicago, he began work as rabbi for the original campus in West Hempstead. Gottesman went on to become a teacher, principal of the Junior and Senior High School and Dean in 1985. [6]
Although officially retired, he still devoted much of his time to HANC. In December 2010, HANC dedicated its new Beit Midrash in his honor. The goal of the Rabbi Moshe Gottesman Beit Midrash is to be a center of learning for students and alumni from HANC as well people who either work or study in nearby communities and schools like Hofstra University and Nassau Community College [7]
Every year, Gottesman led HANC in their march at the annual Salute to Israel Day Parade in New York City [8]
While dean at HANC, Gottesman established the Gottesman Learning Center for children with special needs. The program currently accommodates children with everything from basic learning disabilities to Down syndrome and various types of autism. The program meets each Sunday morning and provides a Jewish education with davening, the aleph-bet, laws and customs, song, dance, art, parashah and crafts to children who, because of their special requirements, would have no other opportunity to be in a Jewish school environment. [9]
For over 25 years the community of Oceanside, New York, did not have a mikvah. In 1984, Gottesman was determined. Neighbors took the religious community to a court zoning board over the building permit. Gottesman and twenty five 12th grade HANC students attended the hearing. Gottesman used his students as a visual aid to show the judge how many people would use the mikva if granted a permit. The judge granted permission and dismissed the case. [10]
The Hebrew Theological College, known colloquially as "Skokie Yeshiva" or HTC, is a yeshiva in Skokie, Illinois. Although the school's primary focus is the teaching of Torah and Jewish tradition, it is also a private university that is part of the Touro College and University System which hosts separate programs for men and women. Founded as a Modern Orthodox institution, it has evolved to include students from Haredi and Hasidic backgrounds.
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Ida Crown Jewish Academy is a Modern Orthodox Jewish high school in Skokie, Illinois, under the auspicies of the Associated Talmud Torahs. Its current dean is Leonard Matanky. ICJA places emphasis on both Judaic and Secular studies and holds its students to high academic standards. ICJA encourages its students to pursue a year in yeshiva or seminary in Israel before attending college. Ida Crown serves students from all over the Chicago area, including Chicago, Lincolnwood, Skokie, Northbrook, Highland Park, Glencoe, Deerfield, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, and Evanston.
Shlomo ha-Levi Alkabetz, also spelt Alqabitz, Alqabes; was a rabbi, kabbalist and poet perhaps best known for his composition of the song Lecha Dodi.
Yeshiva University is an institution that strives to produce well rounded Jewish students by providing them with a dual curriculum in both Torah studies and General knowledge. In the undergraduate men’s program there are four Torah studies tracks, in order to properly serve a diverse student population. One of them is the Irving I. Stone Beit Midrash Program, referred to as “BMP”. In addition there are three others: JSS, IBC, and MYP. JSS is geared towards, “those new to Hebrew language and textual study who want to attain a broad-based Jewish philosophical and text education.” IBC is geared towards students who wish to study seriously but in a classroom setting. MYP, the most rigorous of the four programs, is for those seeking the deepest exposure to traditional learning.
The Hebrew Academy of Nasssau County (HANC) is a K-12, comprehensive, Modern Orthodox Jewish school system, located in Nassau County, New York.
Yeshivat Har Etzion, commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush", is a hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced Torah study in the world and with a student body of roughly 480, it is one of the largest hesder yeshivot in the West Bank.
Yeshiva Gedola of Passaic is an advanced yeshiva in the Passaic Park neighborhood of Passaic, New Jersey catering to post-high-school-age men. Founded in 1973 by Rabbis Chaim Davis and Gershon Weisenfeld, and further developed by Rabbi Meir Stern who replaced Rabbi Wiesenfeld when the latter became ill before the yeshiva's opening, it developed into one of the leading yeshiva gedolas in the United States and revitalized the small Orthodox community of Passaic.
The Yeshiva of Cape Town is a kollel and yeshiva established in 1994. Its full title is "The Rabbi Cyril and Ann Harris Yeshiva of Cape Town", named for the late Chief Rabbi. It is based in the Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation, in the suburb of Sea Point, Cape Town.
Binyamin Tzvi (Benny) Lau, is an Israeli rabbi, community leader, activist, author, and public speaker who lives in Jerusalem. He is the head of 929: Tanach B'yachad and headed the Kehillat Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem for 18 years. He is also the head of the "Human Rights and Judaism in Action Project" at the Israel Democracy Institute. Previously, he was the director of a number of programs at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem, including their Center for Judaism and Society, their Institute for Social Justice, and their Israel Institute for Conversion Policy. He is also a well-known writer, and makes frequent appearances in the media.
Leonard A. Matanky is a prolific Modern Orthodox rabbi and Jewish leader in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Matanky is the co-president of the Religious Zionists of America, pulpit rabbi of Congregation K.I.N.S of West Rogers Park. and Dean of Ida Crown Jewish Academy and past president of the Rabbinical Council of America. He has written extensively on curriculum issues.
Yaakov Mutzafi was a rabbi and kabbalist. The last spiritual leader of the ancient Jewish community of Iraq, he moved to Israel ahead of the Jewish masses when they were finally airlifted there in 1952.
Rabbi Mordechai Hager was the Admor of Vizhnitz Hasidic sect for 46 years, and had a following of tens of thousands of chassidim.
Moshe Rosen, known by the name of his magnum opus, Nezer HaKodesh on Kodashim, was a Polish Orthodox rabbi who befriended the Chazon Ish while serving as a rabbi in Lithuania and later became a well respected Torah scholar in the United States of America.
Meir Goldwicht is an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, Manhattan. He was born in Israel, studied in Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh under his uncle Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht, the Rosh Yeshiva, and had close ties to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Sheea Halevy Herschorn was a Russian-born Canadian Jewish communal leader and posek, who served as Chief Rabbi of Montreal from 1951 until 1961.
Givat Moshe, also known as Gush Shemonim is an Haredi Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem. It borders the other Haredi Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sanhedria, Mahanayim, Ezrat Torah, Shikun Chabad, and Tel Arza. It is named after Rabbi Moshe Porush, a Haredi politician from Agudat Yisrael.
Aryeh Klapper is a leading American rabbi and Jewish thinker who serves as dean of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership. He is Senior Dayan of the Boston Beit Din, co-founder of the Boston Agunah Taskforce, and Rosh Kollel of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership's student fellowship program, the Summer Beit Midrash. Klapper is known for his lectures, published academic and religious articles, and leadership in the Orthodox world. He was listed as one of Tablet Magazine's "Rabbis You Should Know" in 2014.
Esti Rosenberg is an American-Israeli Orthodox Rabbanit who is the founder and head of the Migdal Oz seminary. She is the daughter of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and Dr. Tovah Soloveitchik and the granddaughter of Joseph B. Soloveitchik.