Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman רב יעקב יצחק רודרמן
founder and head of the Ner Israel yeshiva in Baltimore
Born in Dolhinov, he came to Slabodka as a youth—to the Alter and to Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, whose niece he later married. Slabodka gave him two things: Brisker analysis and faith in the greatness of man; he carried both through life.
In 1930 he came to America, and in 1933 opened the Ner Israel yeshiva in Baltimore, which he led for fifty-four years. He began small—it was a time when American Jewish parents did not see why a son needed a yeshiva. He explained by doing: over years, unhurriedly, raising students who became rabbis and teachers across the country. By the time of his death hundreds were learning there, and it stood among the first yeshivot of America.
His lessons appeared as Avodat Levi. He died in Tammuz 1987, and the yeshiva passed to his son-in-law, Rav Yaakov Weinberg.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Avodat Levi by Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman — his Talmud lessons
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the years, Slabodka, America from 1930, Ner Israel from 1933
Basis: documents and evidence.