Biography
Rabbi Porter is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was raised by his parents who began their life anew in America after spending World War II in the Jewish-Russian partisan movement.
Rabbi Porter's parents, together with his mentors, Rabbi Michel and Rebbetzin Feige Twerski, had a profound influence on his life and encouraged him to attend Beis Medrash L'Torah, a yeshiva high school in Skokie, Illinois. Afterwards, Rabbi Porter spent thirteen years at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, and then going on to Loyola College to receive his master's degree in counseling.
From 1974 to 1977, Rabbi Porter organized SEED (Summer Educational and Enrichment Development) programs in Milwaukee. The Porter family moved to Santa Clara, California, so that Rabbi Porter could teach and administer Yeshiva and Medrasha Kerem (a high school for young men and women that combined outreach and Torah learning). In 1981, Rabbi Porter moved back to Baltimore to expand and direct the Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Studies, a multi-level program of outreach and adult learning which has reached over 10,000 Jews of every affiliation. Over the years The Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Learning has grown and presently has a Russian division, a college outreach program, advanced women's program, two centers in Baltimore, and two branches in Washington and Philadelphia.
A yeshiva is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha, while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The studying is usually done through daily shiurim as well as in study pairs called chavrusas. Chavrusa-style learning is one of the unique features of the yeshiva.
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch, is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad operates mainly in the wider world and caters to secularized Jews.
Aish HaTorah is an Orthodox Jewish educational organization and yeshiva.
Gateways is an international organization whose self-declared mission is it to "raise Jewish consciousness."
Telshe Yeshiva is a yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio, formerly located in Telšiai, Lithuania. During World War II the yeshiva began relocating to Wickliffe, Ohio, in the United States and is now known as the Rabbinical College of Telshe, commonly referred to as Telz Yeshiva, or Telz in short.
Ohr Somayach is a yeshiva based in Jerusalem founded in 1970 catering mostly to young Jewish men, usually of college age, who are already interested in learning about Judaism. It is known as a "baal teshuva" yeshiva since it caters to Jews with little or no background in Judaism, but with an interest in studying the classic texts such as the Talmud and responsa. Students are recruited either locally or from other countries where the yeshiva has established branches, such as in the United States, Canada, South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia, Ukraine and Russia.
Yisrael Noah Weinberg was an Orthodox rabbi and the founder of Aish HaTorah.
Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi from the Lithuanian movement and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey from 1962 to 1982. During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian-style, Haredi but non-Hasidic yeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world. He also established Lakewood-style kollels in 30 cities, and pioneered the establishment of community kollels in which Torah scholars study during the morning and afternoon hours and engage in community outreach during the evenings. Upon his death, he had served as the Lakewood rosh yeshiva for exactly the same amount of time as had his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the founding rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha: nineteen years, seven months, and one day.
Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning is an Orthodox Jewish organization designed to reach out to secular and non-Orthodox Jews in the hopes of bringing them into the Baal teshuva movement. Its national headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland with other locations in Owings Mills, Maryland, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. It is under the direction of Rabbi Shlomo Porter. Rabbi Porter has led the organization since 1981. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rabbi Porter graduated from Ner Israel Rabbinical College.
Yeshiva Toras Chaim (YTC) is an all-male, Lithuanian (Litvish)-style Talmudic academy in the West Colfax neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. YTC was founded in Denver in 1967. It is headed by the Roshei Yeshiva, Rav Yisroel Meir Kagan, and Rav Yitzchok Wasserman, both students of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Shmuel Kamenetsky is a Lithuanian–American ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) rabbi. He is the co-founder and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Yitzchak Shmuel Halevi Berkovits is an American-born Orthodox Jewish rabbi, rosh yeshiva, rosh kollel, and posek in Israel. In 16 years as Menahel Ruchani of Yeshivas Aish HaTorah and halakha lecturer at EYAHT, Aish HaTorah's College of Jewish Studies for Women, he built a reputation as a lucid orator on Jewish law and philosophical topics and a mentor to hundreds of English-speaking, baalei teshuva young men and women. In 2001, he founded The Jerusalem Kollel, a rabbinic ordination and training program which prepares students for kiruv (outreach) positions around the world. In 2019, he was appointed rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. He also serves as rosh kollel of an international network of evening kollelim run by Linas HaTzedek: The Center for Jewish Values in Israel and the United States, which spreads the awareness of the laws of bein adam lechaveiro.
The Association for Jewish Outreach Programs,, also known by its abbreviation AJOP, is an Orthodox Jewish network which was established to unite and enhance the Jewish educational work of rabbis, rebbetzens, lay people, and volunteers who work in a variety of settings and seek to improve and promote Jewish Orthodox outreach work with ba'alei teshuvah guiding Jews to live according to Orthodox Jewish values. AJOP was the first major Jewish Orthodox organization of its kind that was not affiliated with the Chabad Hasidic movement.
Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as Kiruv or Qiruv, is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life according to Orthodox Jewish law. The process of a Jew becoming more observant of Orthodox Judaism is called teshuva making the "returnee" a baal teshuva. Orthodox Jewish outreach has worked to enhance the rise of the baal teshuva movement.
The baal teshuva movement is a description of the return of secular Jews to religious Judaism. The term baal teshuva is from the Talmud, literally meaning "master of repentance". The term is used to refer to a worldwide phenomenon among the Jewish people.
Yitzchok Adlerstein is an Orthodox rabbi. He is the co-founder of Cross-Currents, an online journal of Orthodox Jewish thought, and regularly contributes to that site. He is on the editorial board of Klal Perspectives, an online journal of issues facing the Orthodox community.
Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg, known as Yaakov Weinberg was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Talmudist, and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the major American non-Hasidic yeshivas. Weinberg was also a rabbinical advisor and board member Haredi and Orthodox institutions such as Torah Umesorah, Agudath Israel of America and the Association for Jewish Outreach Programs.
Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah is an Orthodox yeshiva located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, founded by Rabbi Shimon Green in 1989.
Chona Menachem Mendel (Mendel) Weinbach was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, educator, author, and speaker. As the co-founder and dean of Ohr Somayach Institutions, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva for newly-observant Jewish men, he was considered one of the fathers of the modern-day baal teshuva movement.
Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel is the head of the Kabbalistic Yeshiva Ahavat Shalom in Jerusalem. He has been described as a prolific author and publisher of sefarim. The majority of his works are about Kabbalah.
