Chaim Berlin

Not to be confused with Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin.

Rabbi Chaim Berlin

Grave of Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Jerusalem.

Chaim Berlin (1832, Valozhyn – 1912, Jerusalem) (חיים ברלין) was an Orthodox rabbi and chief rabbi of Moscow from 1865 to 1889. He was the son of Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin.

Biography

From 1889-1892 he lived in Valozhyn, Belarus where he was a head of a rabbinical court. In 1891 he was named by his father Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (the Netziv) the head of the Valozhyn yeshiva. There was controversy regarding this appointment as many students felt that Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik was more deserving to head the yeshiva.

After that he was the rabbi of Kobryn (1892–1897) and of Elizavetgrad (from 1897).

He left Russia in 1906 and settled in Jerusalem, where he was elected as assistant chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community with Rabbi Shmuel Salant. He also assisted Rabbi Salant in the management of the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis Salant charity founded by Rabbis Zundel and Shmuel Salant in 1860. Rabbi Salant died at the end of 1909, and Rabbi Chaim Berlin led the Jerusalem Rabbinate and the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis Salant charity until his death in 1913.

Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, established in Brooklyn, New York in 1904, was renamed for Rabbi Chaim Berlin in 1914, at the suggestion of his brother, Rabbi Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan).

External links

• Biography of Rabbi Chaim Berlin

References

• Stampfer, Shaul (2011). Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century: Creating a Tradition of Learning. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. ISBN 978-1-874774-79-2.