Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin (Hebrew: יְשִׁיבַת רַבֵּינוּ חַיִּים בֶּרלִין) is an American HarediLithuanian-type boys' and men's yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York. The school's divisions include a preschool, a yeshiva ketana (elementary school), a mesivta (high school), a college-level beth midrash, and Kollel Gur Aryeh, its post-graduate kollel.
History
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin was established in 1904 as Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim in Brownsville, Brooklyn, by Jews who moved there from the Lower East Side of New York City,[1] thus making it the oldest yeshiva in Kings County.[2] At the suggestion of Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan), it was renamed in 1914 for his brother, Chaim Berlin, Chief Rabbi of Moscow and later Jerusalem, and who had also served in Valozhyn, from where several of the yeshiva's founders came.[1][3] Through the help of philanthropist Jacob Rutstein,[4] in 1940 the yeshiva purchased the seven-story former Municipal Bank Building at Pitkin and Stone Avenues[5] (now Mother Gaston Boulevard) in Brownsville.[6]
Leadership
Aaron Schechter (white beard) celebrating Purim in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin during the late 1970s.
The founding rosh yeshiva, Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, served from 1936 until his death in 1963. Yitzchok Hutner joined the faculty during 1936–1937, and gave monthly lectures as rosh yeshiva from 1943 to 1980. In the late 1970s, a branch was opened in Jerusalem called Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok (Fear of Isaac).[7]
After Hutner's death, the New York yeshiva was headed by his disciple Aaron Schechter, and the Jerusalem branch was headed by his son-in-law Yonason David.[7] When Schechter died in 2023, the leadership of the yeshiva passed to his son-in-law Shlomo Halioua.[8] Halioua died on 27 October 2024 after leading the yeshiva for only a year and a half.[9] The leadership then passed jointly to Halioua's son Yosef and son-in-law Tzvi Fink. [10]
Chaim Berlin consists of a preschool, a yeshiva ketana (elementary school), a mesivta (high school), a college-level beth midrash, and Kollel Gur Aryeh, its post-graduate kollel division. Total enrollment for all divisions approaches 2,000 students.[13] The mesivta acts as a feeder school for the beth midrash.[14][15] For a time, while located in Far Rockaway,[16] the mesivta was headed by Shlomo Freifeld.[17]
The yeshiva maintains a summer location, Camp Morris, in Sullivan County, New York.[18] The Yeshiva also runs a summer youth program with the name Chaim Day Camp.
Notable alumni
Notable alumni include many who served in rabbinic capacities throughout the world.
Shalom Z. Berger (born 1960), Senior Content Editor of the Koren Talmud Bavli
Shlomo Carlebach (1925–2022), former mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin[19]
Shlomo Carlebach (1925–1994), rabbi, religious teacher, spiritual leader, composer, and singer[20]
^"The Kriah Clinic". Rav Shlomo Freifeld zt"l related the following story: When Rav Shlomo was Mashgiach at Yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin, one bochur ...
^Alvin Irwin Schiff (January 1966). The Jewish Day School in America. Jewish Education Committee Press. LCCN66-19790.
^ ab"Shlomo Freifeld, Rabbi, 66", The New York Times, October 8, 1990. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Rabbi Freifeld was born in Brooklyn and was a disciple of Rabbi Isaac Hutner at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin. He later became dean of men there before founding Sh'or Yoshuv in 1967."
^Reb Shlomo Carlebach Biography, Shlomo Carlebach Foundation. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Shlomo also studied at the Chaim Berlin Yeshiva in Brooklyn, and in 1954, received rabbinic ordination from its Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner."
^Berger, Joseph (July 17, 2022) "David Weiss Halivni, Controversial Talmudic Scholar, Dies at 94", The New York Times. Accessed September 19, 2023. "Although he knew no English, his reputation as a Talmudic scholar had reached Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, which invited him to undertake advanced Talmud study."
