Baruch Sorotzkin

Rephoel Baruch Sorotzkin
Speaking for Agudath Israel of America
Personal life
BornFebruary 5, 1917
Dzyatlava, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus)
DiedFebruary 10, 1979 (aged 62)
SpouseRachel Bloch
ChildrenYitzchok Sorotzkin
Binyomin Sorotzkin
Eliyahu Meir Sorotzkin
Rassia Busel
Chenia Schulman
Shoshana Herzka
Chassie Brog
Parent(s)Zalman Sorotzkin and Miriam Gordon
Religious life
ReligionJudaism
DenominationHaredi Orthodox Judaism
Jewish leader
PredecessorChaim Mordechai Katz
SuccessorMordechai Gifter

Rephoel Baruch[1] Sorotzkin[2] (February 5, 1917 – February 10, 1979) was the Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland.

He was born on February 5, 1917 (13th of Shevat, 5677) in Zhetl, in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). His father, Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin was the town's rabbi. As a young man, Sorotzkin studied under Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman in the Baranovich Yeshiva, and then under Rabbi Baruch Ber Lebovitz in Kamenitz.

In 1940, Rabbi Boruch Sorotzkin married Rochel Bloch, daughter of the Telzer Rav and Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch.

Sorotzkin was involved in the "tension" over visas needed to flee: the two factions were "those from Lithuanian versus Polish Yeshivot;"[3] control of the Kobe committee was by "students from the Polish yeshivot."[4] The rabbi and his wife fled Europe at the start of World War II, via Shanghai, and made their way to the United States. There, they joined his wife's uncles (and his own cousins) Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz who had re-established the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio.

Teaching

In 1943 Sorotzkin began delivering classes in the yeshiva. In 1953 Sorotzkin was appointed associate dean of the yeshiva.

In 1962 Sorotzkin became dangerously ill and the name Rephoel was added to his name.[2] In 1964, when the Telz Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz died, Sorotzkin together with Rabbi Mordechai Gifter assumed the leadership of the yeshiva.

In the Telzer tradition, Rabbi Sorotzkin extended his sphere of activities to include even more areas of communal responsibility, such as working for Chinuch Atzmai, Torah Umesorah[2] and Agudath Israel of America where he served as one of the youngest member of its Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah - Council of Torah Sages.

Death and family

Sorotzkin died on Saturday, February 10, 1979.

His brothers included rabbis Eliezer Sorotzkin, founder of Kiryat Telz-Stone in Israel,[5] and Yisrael Sorotzkin, rosh yeshiva in Lomza and Av Beit Din in Petah Tikva.[6]

His sons include Rabbi Yitzchok Sorotzkin, dean of the Telz Yeshiva and Mesivta of Lakewood, New Jersey.

Many of his lectures on Talmud were posthumously published by his children under the title Sefer Habinah V’habrachah.[7]

References

  1. ^ Anglicized Boruch by Jewish Telegraphic Agency/JTA
  2. ^ a b c "Rabbi Boruch Sorotzkin Dead at 61". JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency. February 12, 1979.
  3. ^ Efraim Zuroff (1999). The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945. KTAV Publishing. ISBN 978-0-88125-666-6.
  4. ^ Silberklang, David (1979). Yad VaShem studies (Volume 13). p. 344. ISBN 978-1571818485.
  5. ^ 'אלול' בממלכת טלז. yadmeir.co.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. ^ "Page 1491". Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  7. ^ "This Day In History 13 Shevat/February 9". Hamodia.