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Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman

 

 
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Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman
 
 
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Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman (1901-1987) was a prominent Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
ic scholar and Rabbi who founded and served as Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
 of Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
.

He was born in Dolhinov
Dauhinava

Dauhinava is a village in the Vileyka district of the Minsk Voblast of Belarus. It is located 51 miles north of Minsk, 25 miles ENE of Vilejka....
, Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, where his father Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ruderman was the rabbi. He studied in Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael in Slobodka, under the "Alter", Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein
Moshe Mordechai Epstein

Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka Yeshiva, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century....
, receiving Semicha
Semicha

Semicha , also semichut , or semicha lerabbanut is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism....
 from the latter in 1926.

Among Rabbi Ruderman's distinguished colleagues in Slobodka were his second cousin Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky, Rabbi Aharon Kotler
Aharon Kotler

Rabbi Aharon Kotler was a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuanian Jews, and later the United States, where he built one of the first yeshivas in the US....
 , Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner and Rabbi Saul Lieberman
Saul Lieberman

Saul Lieberman , also known as Rabbi Shaul Lieberman or The Gra"sh , was a rabbi and a scholar of Talmud. He served as Professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary for over 40 years, and was for many years, head of the Harry Fischel Institute in Israel and also president of the American Academy for Jewish Research....
.

930, Rabbi Ruderman joined his father-in-law Rabbi Sheftel Kramer at the latter's yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the third largest municipality in Connecticut, after Bridgeport, Connecticut and Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000 people....
.






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Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman (1901-1987) was a prominent Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
ic scholar and Rabbi who founded and served as Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the Dean of a Yeshiva . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh ? meaning head, and yeshiva ? a school of religious Jewish education....
 of Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
.

He was born in Dolhinov
Dauhinava

Dauhinava is a village in the Vileyka district of the Minsk Voblast of Belarus. It is located 51 miles north of Minsk, 25 miles ENE of Vilejka....
, Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, where his father Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ruderman was the rabbi. He studied in Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael in Slobodka, under the "Alter", Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein
Moshe Mordechai Epstein

Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka Yeshiva, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century....
, receiving Semicha
Semicha

Semicha , also semichut , or semicha lerabbanut is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism....
 from the latter in 1926.

Among Rabbi Ruderman's distinguished colleagues in Slobodka were his second cousin Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky, Rabbi Aharon Kotler
Aharon Kotler

Rabbi Aharon Kotler was a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuanian Jews, and later the United States, where he built one of the first yeshivas in the US....
 , Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner and Rabbi Saul Lieberman
Saul Lieberman

Saul Lieberman , also known as Rabbi Shaul Lieberman or The Gra"sh , was a rabbi and a scholar of Talmud. He served as Professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary for over 40 years, and was for many years, head of the Harry Fischel Institute in Israel and also president of the American Academy for Jewish Research....
.

Building Torah in America

In 1930, Rabbi Ruderman joined his father-in-law Rabbi Sheftel Kramer at the latter's yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the third largest municipality in Connecticut, after Bridgeport, Connecticut and Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000 people....
. In 1933, he moved to Baltimore, where he was he immediately offered a rabbinical post. Rabbi Ruderman accepted the position on the condition that he be permitted to open a yeshiva using the synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
 facilities; he named the new yeshiva Ner Yisroel, or "Ner Israel".

The yeshiva grew quickly, and Rabbi Ruderman approached the renowned Rabbi Shimon Schwab
Shimon Schwab

Rabbi Shimon Schwab was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi and communal leader in Germany and the United States. Educated in Frankfurt am Main and in the yeshiva of Lithuania, he was rabbi in Ichenhausen, Bavaria, after immigration to the United States in Baltimore, and from 1958 until his death at Khal Adath Jeshurun in Washington Heights, Man...
, at the time rabbi of another Baltimore congregation, and invited him to join the faculty. Rabbi Schwab taught the first-year shiur (class) in Ner Israel for several years, until he moved to Washington Heights
Washington Heights, Manhattan

Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the Borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington , a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the British forces....
.

Rabbi Ruderman led the yeshiva for 54 years until his passing when Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg
Yaakov Weinberg

Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg, known as Yaakov Weinberg was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi, Talmudist and the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, Maryland one of the major United Statesn non-Hasidic Judaism yeshivas....
, his son in law, took over. Rabbi Ruderman was Rosh Yeshiva, while his brother-in-law, Rabbi Naftoli (Herman) Neuberger
Herman N. Neuberger

Hermann Naftali Neuberger was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi and leader in the United States....
 took care of the financial side. Together, they built it into one of the largest yeshivas in America
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, producing thousands of rabbis, educators and learned laymen.

Rabbi Ruderman was also involved in many aspects of Jewish communal life outside of the Yeshiva. He was a member of the Council of Torah Sages
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah

The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ????? ????? ????? is the name for the councils that are the supreme rabbinical policy-making bodies of the two Ashkenazi Jews Haredi Judaism political groups in Israel, Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel, and for the social and political group in the United States that serves as the highest ranking rabbinic policy b...
 of Agudath Israel
Agudath Israel of America

Agudath Israel of America , is a Haredi Judaism Jewish communal organization in the United States loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel....
 and the chairman of the Rabbinic Advisory Board of Torah Umesorah.

Death

Rabbi Ruderman's death on July 11, 1987, the 14th of Tammuz
Tammuz (month)

Tammuz is the tenth month of the civil year and the fourth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a summer month of 29 days....
, followed less than 18 months after the passing of Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein

Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Jews Orthodox Judaism rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme rabbinic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America....
. Rabbi Ruderman was one of the last surviving Roshei Yeshiva (yeshiva heads) who came to America from Lithuania
Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
 early in the 20th century.

Works

Around 1926, Rabbi Ruderman published his only written work, Avodas Levi. Posthumously, his students have published two volumes of his teachings: ethical insights based on the weekly parsha
Parashah

|}A parashah formally means a section of a biblical book in the masoretic text of the Tanakh . In common usage today the word often refers to the Weekly Torah portion ....
 named Sichos Levi, and lectures on the 19th century work Minchas Chinuch and other Talmudic and halachic insights in Mas'as Levi.