- Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein (1895 - 1986) was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi and scholar, who was world renowned for his expertise in halakha and was the "de facto" supreme rabbinic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America. In the Orthodox world, it is universal to refer to him simply as "Reb Moshe."
- Chaim Volozhin
Chaim Volozhin (1749-1821) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Talmudist, and ethicist. Popularly known as "Reb Chaim Volozhiner", or simply "Reb Chaim", he was born in Volozhin when it was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and died there while it was under the control of the Russian Empire. Presently it is located in Belarus. One of the most prominent disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Reb Chaim Volozhiner established the Volozhin yeshiva.
- Norman Lamm
Rabbi Dr. Norman ("Nachum") Lamm, (born 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, United States), is a major American Modern Orthodox Jewish communal leader. He is presently the Chancellor of Yeshiva University. He was the third President of Yeshiva University (YU), and the first to be born in the USA. He also holds a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy. He is a disciple of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (Modern Orthodoxy's most influential scholar), …
- Elchonon Wasserman
Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman (Hebrew: אלחנן וסרמן) was a prominent Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva in pre-World War II Europe. He was one of the Chofetz Chaim's closest disciples and a Torah scholar of note, and well known for being a strong opponent of all forms of Zionism.
- Aharon Kotler
Rabbi Aharon (or Ahroyn, Aaron, Aron) Kotler (1891 - 1962) was a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania, and later the United States of America, where he built one of the first yeshivas in the US.
- Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman
Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman was a prominent Talmudic scholar and Rabbi who founded and served as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore. He was born in Dolhinov, Russia, 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, receiving Semicha from the latter in 1926.
- Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Hebrew: שלמה זלמן אוירבך), was a renowned Rabbi, Posek and Rosh Yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Israel. He was born in the Sha'arei Chessed neighborhood of Jerusalem founded by his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Porush after whom he was named. He studied at the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem and then, following his marriage, at Kollel Kerem Tzion about the Halachos (Jewish laws) of Eretz Yisrael.
- Shimon Shkop
Rabbi Shimon Shkop (1860-1940) was a rosh yeshiva ("dean") in the Telshe yeshiva and a renowned Talmudic sholar. He was born in Tortz in 1860. At the age of twelve he went to study in the Mir yeshiva, and at fifteen he went to Volozhin yeshiva where he studied six years. His teachers were the Netziv and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, with whom he was very close.
- Aharon Lichtenstein
Aharon Lichtenstein (born in 1933) is a noted Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva. Rabbi Lichtenstein was born in France, but grew up in the United States, studied in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin under Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner. He earned a BA and "semicha" ("rabbinic ordination") at Yeshiva University and a PhD in English Literature at Harvard University, where he studied under Douglas Bush. After serving as Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University for several years, …
- Malkiel Kotler
Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler is the Rosh yeshiva, or Dean, of the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey. He is the grandson of BMG's founder, Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Rabbi Kotler had a brother who was the heir apparent to be Rosh Yeshiva when their father, Rabbi Shneur Kotler, died. His younger brother Meir died of cancer ten years before his father's death. He lived in Israel for 15 years before the death of his father.
- Nosson Tzvi Finkel
Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel is the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva, which is located in Beis Yisroel, Jerusalem, Israel. He is the son-in-law of Rabbi Beinish Finkel, who was the son of Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel. Rabbi Nosson Tzvi himself is a direct great-grandson of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Slabodka) (the Alter of Slabodka), whose name he bears. His wife is a distant cousin to him. Rabbi Finkel suffers from advanced Parkinson's disease.
- Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Joseph Ber (Yosef Dov, Yoshe Ber) Soloveitchik (1903 - 1993) was an American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist and modern Jewish philosopher. He was the descendant of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. As "Rosh Yeshiva" of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University in New York City, The Rav, as he came to be known, ordained close to 2,000 rabbis over the course of almost half a century.
- Elazar Shach
Elazar Menachem Man Shach (January 22, 1898 - November 2, 2001), was a leading Eastern European-born and educated Haredi rabbi who settled and lived in modern Israel. He was the rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews in the Israeli Knesset, …
- Ahron Soloveichik
Rabbi Ahron (Aaron) Soloveichik ;(May 1, 1917 - October 4 2001) was a scholar of Halakha and a Rosh Yeshiva; known especially within circles of Orthodox Judaism.
- Moshe Soloveichik
Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, son of the renowned Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and grandson of the Beis HaLevi - Rabbi Yosef Baer Soloveitchik, was the older of Rabbi Chaim's two sons. His brother, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik (known as "Reb Velvele", or the "GRYZ" גרי"ז), succeeded his father as the rabbi of Brisk and eventually emigrated to Israel. At the age of 31, Rabbi Moshe was appointed rabbi of the town of Raseiniai, a position he held for 3 years.
- Bernard Revel
Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Revel (September 17 1885-1940) was an Orthodox rabbi and scholar. He served as the first President of Yeshiva College from 1915 until his death in 1940.
- Yisrael Meir Kagan
Yisrael Meir (HaCohen) Kagan (Dzyatlava, February 6, 1838 - Radun, September 15, 1933) also known popularly as The Chofetz Chaim was an influential Eastern European rabbi, Halakhist, Kabbalist, and ethicist whose works continue to be widely influential in Jewish life.
- Yitzchok Hutner
Yitzchok (Isaac) Hutner (1906 - 1980) was an Orthodox rabbi born in Warsaw, Poland, to a family with both Ger Hasidim and non-Hasidic Lithuanian Jews in their origins. He received private instruction in Torah and Talmud. As a young teenager, he was enrolled in the famous "mussar" Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania, headed by the famous Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel. There, he was known as the "Warsaw Illui" ("prodigy").
- Elya Svei
Rabbi Elya Svei is one of the Rosh Yeshivas of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, although he retired. He was one of the foremost leaders of Litvish Jewry, and one of its Gedolim.
- Yaakov Kamenetsky
Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, was a prominent rosh yeshiva, "posek" and Talmudist in the post-World War II American Jewish community. He was born in the hamlet of Kalushkove, Lithuania, in 1891. Shortly afterwards his family moved to the village of Dolhinov where he grew up. He studied in Minsk and then for 21 years in Slabodka yeshiva under Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel. It was there that he met his lifelong friend Rabbi Aharon Kotler, …
- Moshe Mordechai Epstein
Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein (1866-1934) was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century.
- Dovid Lifshitz
Rabbi Dovid Lifshitz (1906-1993) was a distinguished Rosh yeshiva in the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) for almost fifty years. He was appointed upon the invitation of Rabbi Samuel Belkin in 1944. He was also known as the "Suvalker Rav", due to his previous position as the Rabbi of the European town of Suvalk, which he maintained until its capture by the Nazis in 1940.
- Samuel Belkin
Rabbi Samuel Belkin (1911-1976) is best known as the second University President of Yeshiva University. He was born in Swislocz, Poland and studied in the yeshivas of Slonim and Mir. He went to the United States in 1929 and received his doctorate (concerned with the writings of Philo) at Brown University in 1935, one of the first awarded for Judaic studies in academia. He then joined the faculty of Yeshiva College, New York, …
- Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik
Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, also known as Velvel Soloveitchik or as the Brisker Rov, (1886-1959), was a son of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk. He is also commonly known as the "GRYZ", an acronym for " Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Zev " ("genius Rabbi Isaac Wolf").
- Eliezer Gordon
Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (1841-1910) also known as "Reb Laizer Telzer", served as the Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Telz, Lithuania.
- Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin
Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin was the Rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin yeshiva and author if several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania. His name is commonly abbreviated by its consonants as Netziv (נציב which can also mean "pillar").
- Aharon Feldman
Rabbi Aharon Feldman is the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel (Ner Israel Rabbinical College, also known as NIRC) a Haredi yeshiva located in Baltimore, Maryland and one of the best known yeshivas in the world. He has held this position since 2000. Rabbi Aharon Feldman is the son of Rabbi Joseph H. Feldman, (d. 1992) who was the last rabbi to formally serve as Chief Rabbi of Baltimore, MD. The Feldman family is a prominent rabbinic family, …
- Berel Wein
Rabbi Berel Wein,the founder and director of The Destiny Foundation since 1996, has, for over 25 years, been identified with the popularization of Jewish history through world-wide lectures, his more than 1,000 audiotapes, books, seminars, educational tours and, most recently, dramatic and documentary films. Rabbi Wein is a graduate of the Hebrew Theological College and Roosevelt College in Chicago.
- Naftoli Shapiro
Rabbi Naftoli Shapiro (1906-1981) was an Orthodox Talmudic scholar and Rosh yeshiva in Glasgow for 40 years. Born in 1906 in the town of Mir, Poland, Rabbi Shapiro studied at the prestigious Mir yeshiva from the age of twelve. He also learned at the Radin yeshiva, and was a pupil of the Chofetz Chaim. Rabbi Shapiro studied at the Lomza yeshiva, where he was appointed teacher to senior students preparing for semicha.
- Berel Soloveitchik
Rabbi Berel (Yosef Dov) Soloveitchik was the son of Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik and one of the leading Rosh Yeshivas ("heads of the yeshiva") of the Brisk yeshivas in Jerusalem, Israel. He was a first cousin to Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who was named after the Beis HaLevi, as he was. Rav Berel was succeeded as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Jerusalem by his son Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik.
- Elyah Lopian
Eliyohu Lopian, known as Reb Elyah, was among the most prominent rabbis of the Mussar movement. As a disciple of the Kelm Talmud Torah method, he was known for his strict keeping of order and strong self-control. It is told that he would not turn his head without a reason and a structured decision. Lopian was born in Kelmė, Lithuania. In his youth he studied at the yeshiva in Lomza.
- Yechezkel Sarna
Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna (1890 - 1969) was the successor to Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka, as the spiritual mentor of that Yeshiva. He moved it from Europe to Hebron in 1925 and, following the Hebron Massacre of 1929 to Jerusalem, later assuming the position of Rosh Yeshiva.
- Aharon Leib Shteinman
Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman (also: Shtainman or Steinman is a prominent Haredi rabbi currently living in Bnei Brak, Israel. He belongs to the Lithuanian branch of Judaism, and heads a division of the famed Ponevezh yeshiva. He married Tamar (Tema) Kornfeld (d. 2002), a descendant of Moshe Chaim Rotenberg of Khentshin.
- Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz
Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz is a Haredi leader living in Bnei Brak, Israel. He is one of the heads of the Ponevezh yeshiva and is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah.
- Mosheh Twersky
Mosheh Twersky is a lecturer at Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem. He is the elder son of Rabbi Isadore (Yitzhak) Twersky of Boston, and a grandson of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
- Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik
Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik (known as Reb or Rav Dovid) heads one of the branches of the Brisk yeshivas in Jerusalem, Israel attended by select young Talmudists, mainly from the United States. He is a son-in-law of Osher Sternbuch of London.
- Adin Steinsaltz
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (Hebrew: עדין שטיינזלץ) or Adin Even Yisrael (born 1937) is most commonly known for his popular commentary and translation of both Talmuds into Hebrew, French, Russian and Spanish. In 1988, he was awarded the Israel Prize, Israel's highest honor. Steinsaltz is a noted scholar, philosopher, social critic and author world wide whose background also includes extensive scientific training.
- Moshe Halberstam
Rabbi Moshe Halberstam (April 1, 1932 - April 26, 2006) was the son of Grand Rabbi Yaakov Halberstam of Tschakava, a scion of the Sanz dynasty, and of the daughter of Rabbi Sholom of Shotz of London. He was the Rosh Yeshivah of the Tschakava Yeshivah in Jerusalem and one of the most prominent members of the Edah Charedis Rabbinical court of Jerusalem. He was known as a well-versed Torah scholar and a decisor of Halachic law.
- Shmuel Kamenetsky
Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky has been co-Rosh Yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia for the past 50 years with Rabbi Elya Svei and is probably the current best-known Gadol (Haredi Litvish Jewish religious leader) outside the of Israel. He is the most famous son of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky. Rabbi Kamenetsky is on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America. While Rabbi Yaakov Perlow is the head of the Moetzes, …
- Leib Gurwicz
Rabbi Aryeh Ze'ev (Leib) Gurwicz (1906-1982) was an influential Orthodox Rabbi and Talmudic scholar. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Elyah Lopian and best known as Rosh Yeshiva of the Gateshead Yeshiva in Gateshead, England. He studied at various yeshivas in Vilkomir, Mir, Baranovitch, and Brisk before becoming rosh yeshiva of Gateshead, …