Ner Israel Rabbinical College, also known as NIRC and Ner Yisroel, is a Haredi yeshiva in Pikesville, Maryland. It was founded in 1933 by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, dean of the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania. Rabbi Aharon Feldman, a disciple of Rabbi Ruderman and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America, became its head in 2001.
Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, also known as the Chazon Ish after his magnum opus, was a Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi who later became one of the leaders of Haredi Judaism in Israel, where he spent his final 20 years, from 1933 to 1953.
Boruch Ber Leibowitz (Yiddish: ברוך בער לייבאוויץ Hebrew: רב ברוך דוב ליבוביץ, romanized: Boruch Dov Libovitz; 1862 – November 17, 1939, known as Reb Boruch Ber, was a rabbi famed for his Talmudic lectures, particularly in that they were rooted styled in the method of his teacher Chaim Soloveitchik. He is known for leading Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak in Slabodka and Kaminetz.
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 Shimshon Dovid Pincus was an Israeli Haredi Rabbi of American origin, who served in Ofaqim.
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.
Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik was a Haredi (ultra-orthodox) rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of one of the branches of the Brisk yeshivas in Jerusalem.
Aaron Moshe Schechter was an American Haredi rabbi. He was the rosh yeshiva (Dean) of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and its post-graduate Talmudical division, Kollel Gur Aryeh. He also served on the presidium of Agudath Israel of America and was a member of that organization's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
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 in Haredi and Orthodox institutions such as Torah Umesorah, Agudath Israel of America and the Association for Jewish Outreach Programs.
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.
Yechiel Fishel Eisenbach was a Haredi rabbi and long-time rosh yeshiva of Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest kabbalists in Israel, and was an expert in the writings of the Arizal and the siddur of the Rashash.
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.
Shmuel Ehrenfeld, known as the Mattersdorfer Rav, was a pre-eminent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in pre-war Austria and a respected Torah leader and community builder in post-war America. He established Yeshivas Ch'san Sofer in New York City and taught thousands of students who went on to become leaders of American Torah Jewry. He also founded the neighborhood of Kiryat Mattersdorf in Jerusalem, where his son and grandson became prominent Torah educators. He was the great-great-grandson of the Chasam Sofer through the Chasam Sofer's daughter Hindel, who married Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Ehrenfeld.
Akiva Ehrenfeld was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who helped establish the Kiryat Mattersdorf and Unsdorf neighborhoods of northern Jerusalem. He served as president of Kiryat Mattersdorf and president of the Chasan Sofer Institutions in the United States.
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.
Avrohom Yaakov Friedman was the fifth Rebbe of the Sadigura Hasidic dynasty. In 1979 he succeeded his father, the fourth Sadigura Rebbe, and took his seat on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. He oversaw the growth of Sadigura communities in Israel and in London, Antwerp, and New York City.
Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner was an Israeli–American rabbi who was the rosh yeshiva of the Kamenitz yeshiva of Jerusalem.
Avraham Yoffen, also known as "Avraham Pinsker" 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.
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.
