Misplaced Pages

#915084

29-590: Named after Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor , the school's Hebrew name is Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon ( Hebrew : ישיבת רבינו יצחק אלחנן ). The name in Hebrew characters appears on the seals of all YU affiliates. The first Jewish schools in New York were El Hayyim and Rabbi Elnathan's, on the Lower East Side . In 1896, several New York and Philadelphia rabbis agreed that a rabbinical seminary based on

58-525: A career as a rabbi. He then studied at Yeshiva University, where he attended the Sy Syms School of Business and majored in finance . He is a close student of Rav Hershel Schachter . Rabbi Lebowitz received semikhah from RIETS and from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg . Rabbi Lebowitz served for three years as assistant rabbi at Congregation Shaaray Tefila in Lawrence, before establishing

87-606: A college-level program, including granting of degrees via semikhah (rabbinical ordination). Secular studies were added, with the RIETS rosh yeshiva (dean) also serving as president of the college secular academic programs while Moshe Soloveichik served as co-head of RIETS. This arrangement continued into the 1940s. However, the second president , Samuel Belkin , legally separated the two institutions in order to obtain United States government funding and research grants for

116-573: A committee of rabbis chosen to regulate the management of the Volozhin yeshiva . In 1868, he headed a committee to help the poor during a drought which almost produced a famine, and he allowed the temporary use of peas and beans that year during the Passover , when they are normally forbidden by Ashkenazic rabbis. In 1875, he decided against the use of the Corfu Citron as Etrog , because of

145-498: A short period in 1929, as did Shlomo Polachek , Menachem Mendel Zaks , Moshe Shatzkes , Nisson Alpert , Dovid Lifshitz and Moshe David Tendler . Later roshei yeshiva include: Hershel Schachter , Eliyahu Ben Haim , Mordechai Willig , Michael Rosensweig , Mayer Twersky , Jeremy Wieder , Yaakov Neuburger , Baruch Simon , Zvi Sobolofsky , David Hirsch , J. David Bleich , and Daniel Stein , Hershel Reichman and Ezra Schwartz . Ordination can technically be conferred upon

174-525: A student who completes all of the necessary requirements for semikhah at any point in time. Nonetheless, every three or four years, RIETS conducts a formal Chag Hasemikhah —an official celebration of the students who received rabbinic ordination since the previous Chag. It is traditionally held on or about the yartzeit of Isaac Elchanan Spektor which is Adar 21. Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor or Isaac Elhanan Spector ( Hebrew : יצחק אלחנן ספקטור ; 1817 - March 6, 1896)

203-555: A three-block site in Washington Heights, built its first building, and moved its operation there. As of 2018, that building continued to house the Yeshiva University (YU) affiliated High School for Boys, but all other operations had moved to other buildings later constructed on the expanded campus surrounding it. The high school, previously part of RIETS, became a separate entity, and RIETS became exclusively

232-525: A variety of YU's secular departments due to the separation of church and state in the United States . RIETS scholar Joseph B. Soloveitchik strongly opposed the split, but Belkin prevailed and, following the split, remained both the official rosh yeshiva of RIETS and president of YU. Despite the separation, the identities have continued to be blended Both the religious seminary and the college undergraduate Talmudic department are called RIETS, and have

261-523: Is an honors track within the general semikhah program whereby students receive an extra stipend and are required to take additional courses. The majority of students in the semikhah program are also enrolled in the Katz Kollel which is led by the rosh kollel , Hershel Schachter . Many RIETS students are also concurrently enrolled in a variety of other graduate degree -granting programs in law , education, academic Jewish studies, psychology, and

290-600: The Knesses Beis Yitzchok Kaminetz of Baruch Ber Leibowitz . He had a daughter and three sons including Hirsch Rabinovich, who was maggid (preacher) of Vilna and later succeeded his father as rabbi of Kovno . Aryeh Lebowitz Aryeh Lebowitz ( Hebrew : אריה צבי ליבוביץ , born May 17, 1977) is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi , author and posek . He is the director of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Semikhah Program at

319-581: The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and the founding rabbi and current Mara D'atra of Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere . Lebowitz grew up in the Five Towns . Growing up, he originally wanted to be a lawyer. He attended Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh for two years after high school. There he developed a close relationship with Rav Ahron Silver , who encouraged him to pursue

SECTION 10

#1732798241916

348-699: The Abraham Arbesfeld Torah Dean of RIETS, and Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky was appointed as the Max and Marion Grill Administrative Dean of RIETS. At the time of Reiss's appointment, RIETS absorbed the academic administration of the Undergraduate Torah Studies programs affiliated with Yeshiva College and Sy Syms School of Business on the Wilf Campus (Mazer Yeshiva Program, Stone Beit Midrash Program, Isaac Breuer College, and

377-556: The Abraham Arbesfeld Torah Dean of RIETS. During the summer Rabbi Lebowitz teaches at Camp Kaylie. Rabbi Lebowitz has published numerous articles and several books on the practical applications of Jewish law , including authoring three volumes of Hakoneh Olamo , collections of halachic essays in Hebrew . He is popular on YUTorah for his “Ten Minute Halacha” lecture series, as well as his Daf Yomi series. Rabbi Lebowitz has published over 10,000 shiurim and articles on YUTorah,

406-529: The Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere in 2004 where he presently serves as rabbi. Rabbi Lebowitz was previously a maggid shiur at Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for eighteen years until 2016, when he was hired as a senior maggid shiur at Lander College for Men . Rabbi Lebowitz began as the Director of Semikhah at Yeshiva University in fall 2019. In August 2024, he was appointed

435-554: The James Striar School). The RIETS semikhah program is a structured four-year curriculum. The primary focus is on advanced Talmudic learning as well as developing a proficiency in deciding matters of classical and contemporary halakha (Jewish law; see Yeshiva § Jewish law ). There are a variety of required ancillary courses, such as homiletics, pastoral counseling, and Jewish philosophy, that are intended to train students for careers as practicing rabbis. There

464-587: The Russian government. Spektor visited St. Petersburg twice to take part in conferences held there on the situation of the Jews after the riots of 1881. He successfully opposed the proposed establishment of a new rabbinical school like those in Vilna and Zhitomir , but failed to induce the government to recognize the synagogue rabbis instead of the government rabbis as the heads of Jewish communities. In 1889, Spektor

493-506: The combined school. In 1916 it expanded to include a boy's high school, the Talmudical Academy . In the late 1920s, the institution began a building campaign of US$ 5 million, announcing an institution called the "Yeshiva of America", later the "Yeshiva College of America", before finally settling simply on Yeshiva College ., which would be the undergraduate college for men of what later became Yeshiva University. In 1926, it bought

522-469: The community of Baresa was unwilling to let him go, and he left the town at night. He was paid four rubles a week, and when he accepted the rabbinate of Novohrodok ( Kovno Governorate ) in 1851 he secretly fled Nishvez at night, as he had left Baresa. He stayed in Novohrodok until 1864, when he was appointed chief rabbi of Kovno , a post he held until his death. In 1857 he was the youngest member of

551-556: The day founded the school, calling it the Rabbinical College of America (not related to the current institution of that name). In 1915, it merged with an elementary school, the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva, and its name was changed to Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), named after Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor , a Russian rabbi who died the year of the school's founding. Bernard Revel was appointed as head of

580-678: The government, but sponsored the " Kovnoer Perushim " as a substitute. He participated in the Kovno kollel and the Hovevei Zion movement. He was the anonymous friend who influenced Samson Raphael Hirsch in 1884 to write Ueber die Beziehung des Talmuds zum Judenthum , a defense of Talmudic literature against anti-Semitic slanders in Russia. Spektor died at Kovno on 6 March 1896. Institutions named after him include Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS, part of Yeshiva University ) and

609-425: The high price at the time. In 1879 he arranged, through Prof. A. Harkavy , his former pupil, that three rabbis, Reuben of Dünaburg , Lipa Boslansky of Mir, and Elijah Eliezer Grodzenski of Vilna, should be added to the official rabbinical commission, which had hitherto consisted entirely of men of affairs and secular scholars. Together with Yisrael Salanter , he was active in opposing the anti-semitic decrees of

SECTION 20

#1732798241916

638-550: The position as head of the Chicago Rabbinical Council . In 2023, Rabbi Penner left his position as dean in order to assume the role of executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America . Following Rabbi Penner's departure, Rabbi Michael Taubes was appointed as interim dean of RIETS. Rabbi Penner currently serves as dean emeritus. In August, 2024, Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz was appointed as

667-470: The same faculty and students. With the 2003 appointment of Richard Joel , a layman , as president of YU, the dual role ended. Joel's predecessor, Norman Lamm , continued as the official rosh yeshiva of RIETS with Richard Joel being the Chief Executive and responsible for fundraising and administrative issues. Menachem Penner became the dean of RIETS in 2013 after Yona Reiss resigned to take

696-762: The sciences. RIETS has two post- semikhah kollelim (referred to as the Kollel Elyon ) which offer students the opportunity to study Torah at an advanced level and take supplemental courses for an additional 3 to 4 years while receiving a stipend. The roshei kollel of the Kollel Elyon are Michael Rosensweig and Mordechai Willig . Members of the Brisker dynasty , Moshe Soloveichik and Joseph B. Soloveitchik were heads of RIETS, and Ahron Soloveichik and Aharon Lichtenstein lectured there for significant portions of their careers. Shimon Shkop taught at RIETS for

725-440: The small adjacent town of Sabelin , with a weekly salary of five zlotys . He remained there for about two years, when he went to Karlin and introduced himself to R. Jacob of that town (author of "Mishkenot Ya'aḳob"), who recommended him to the community of Baresa (Biaroza), where Spektor became the town's rabbi in 1839 with a salary of one ruble a week. In 1846, Spektor was chosen as rabbi of Nishvez , Minsk Governorate , but

754-629: The traditional European yeshiva structure was needed to produce American rabbis who were fully committed to what would come to be called Orthodox Judaism . There were only two rabbinical seminaries in the United States, Hebrew Union College , which followed Reform Judaism , and the Jewish Theological Seminary , which was first affiliated with the more established Orthodox community in America and later Conservative Judaism . Bernard L. Levinthal and other leading Orthodox rabbis of

783-693: Was a Russian rabbi , posek and Talmudist of the 19th century. Spektor was born in Ros' , Belarus ( Yiddish : Rosh), then part of the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire . His father, Israel Issar, rabbi of Resh and Yitzchak Elchanan's first teacher, leaned toward Hasidism . Yitzchak Elchanan studied Talmud and at the age of thirteen he married, and settled with his wife's parents in Vilkovisk , where he remained for six years. He

812-593: Was elected an honorary member of the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia , whose philosophy he said was compatible with traditional Judaism. He identified with the traditional rabbinate but refrained from any confrontation with the young Haskala movement. In 1889, Spektor opposed the proposed celebration of his rabbinical jubilee. He failed to save the Volozhin yeshiva from being closed by

841-496: Was for a short time the pupil of Elijah Schick, and later he studied under Benjamin Diskin, rabbi of Vilkovisk and was the fellow student of Diskin's son Joshua Leib Diskin , afterward rabbi of Brisk . Spektor received his semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from Benjamin Diskin and from R. Isaac Ḥaber of Tiktin (later of Suwałki ). His wife's 300 rubles dowry was lost in the bankruptcy of his debtor. In 1837 Spector became rabbi of

#915084