It All Began…

The majority of those who are part and parcel of today’s kiruv movement are not old enough to be cognizant of the fact that it wasn’t all that long ago that the phrase kiruv movement was unknown in any language.

On one of his tapes, Rav Miller z”l, speaks about a certain very fine Yid living in Boro Park who sports a dignified long beard with big bushy payos, all decked out in the gang colors of the yeshiva world: black and white.  He comes from a long line of tzadikim, including his parents who were kedoshim killed by the Nazis during the war.

Or so he thinks.

Rav Miller z”l, tells us that he knows the truth about this man’s parents.  They were Communists, and had there been no war it would have been impossible for this Yid to have come out of such a house.   In pre-war Europe there was a greater likelihood of a non-religious Jew, be he a Communist, Bundest or assimilationist of any stripe, traveling thousands of miles to the United States (for those few who could still drey an immigration certificate) and marrying an Italian girl from the East Bronx than there was for that person to become a baal teshuva.

And that’s despite the Chofetz Chaim’s cry in the last years of his life that kiruv should be the call of the hour.

It wasn’t much better here in those days either, but at least it wasn’t impossible.

Whereas in Eretz Yisroel, where the explosion in kiruv can be directly traced to the emotional tsunami that crested in the wake of 1967 war, kiruv in the United States began to take root two decades earlier, and it did not have its genesis in any particular event.  It percolated to the surface of Jewish life here from different wellsprings to be sure but with the exception of Chabad, which was first out of the gate, and which continues to commit its entire movement to the battle for lost Jewish souls, most of what would define American kiruv both in the States and in Eretz Yisroel in the late sixties, seventies and beyond to the present flows back to one person.

Aish HaTorah with its multitude of branches and initiatives that subsequently devolved from it, such as Project Inspire, in addition to its awesome Web presence as manifested by Aish.com, Kiruv.com, SimpleToRemember.com, ClassicSinai.com et al. was conceived and nurtured by Rabbi Noach Weinberg z”l.  And before founding Aish HaTorah, Reb Noach was one of the founders, along with Mendel Weinbach and Nota Schiller, of Yeshiva Shema Yisroel whose name was subsequently changed to Ohr Somayach.  Mendel Weinbach, the Dean of Ohr Somayach considers himself to be a talmid of Reb Noach in inyonai kiruv.  Together, Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach remain the dominent force amongst the main stream baal teshuva yeshivas.  There is no question that Noach Weinberg was one of the most influential figures in kiruv in the English speaking world. 

But he wasn’t alone. 

He also had a brother named (Shmuel) Yaakov Weinberg z"l, who was Rosh Yeshiva of  Yeshivas Ner Israel in Baltimore, succeeding  his father-in-law, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Ruderman z”l.  In addition to his position as rabbinical advisor to AJOP (The Association of Jewish Outreach Professionals/Programs) from its inception until his death, he founded the Maor Institute to train his talmidim for effective outreach. 

There was also Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld, who built Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv, into what was at one time the largest baal teshuva yeshiva in the United States.  His talmidim have spread across the length and breadth of the USA, Canada and Eretz Yisroel where they have opened their own institutions in addition to staffing existing yeshivas and kiruv organizations. 

And there is NCSY which, over the course of several decades, Rabbi Pinchus Stolper built into the premiere Orthodox organization working on the front lines with Jewish public school teens and day school teens, many of which don’t go on to yeshiva high school.  Since its inception in the early 1950s, NCSY, under Rabbi Stolper’s guidance has sent thousands of high school grads to learn in Eretz Yisroel and also on pilot trips.  Many thousands more have been saved for Yiddishkeit.

Rabbis Noach Weinberg z”l, Shlomo Freifeld z”l, Pinchus Stolper, Yaakov Weinberg z”l, and many others who went on to make significant contributions in the realm of Jewish outreach were all talmidim of Rav Yitzchak Hutner z”l, as was Rabbi Nota Schiller before moving on to Ner Yisroel.

Even Reb Shlomo Carlbach z"l, who eschewed the yeshiva and organizational based kiruv model in favor of musical outreach, received his semicha from Rav Hutner.

The overwhelming number of the major players who created the American kiruv movement were talmidim of either Yeshiva Rabbeinu ChaimBerlin or Yeshiva Ner Yisroel, who were either directly influenced by Rav Hutner z”l, or indirectly through his talmidim.

As was said above, most of what would define American kiruv both in the States and in Eretz Yisroel in the late sixties, seventies and beyond to the present flows back to one person.

But it’s not Rav Hutner. 

It flows through him, however, because his positive attitude to kiruv, an attitude which was unique amongst all of the contemporary Roshei Yeshiva, was not wrought in a vacuum.  Rav Hutner’s outlook vis á vis non-religious Jewry evolved during his years as a bochur in Hevron, at the same time he developed his attachment to the writings of the Marahral M’Prague and to the sifrei Kaballah. 

And it came to him by way of the same mentor.

The Chofetz Chaim’s plea for a kiruv initiative may have gone unanswered in the ideological wasteland that was pre-war Europe, but it didn’t go lost altogether.  Someone was listening, and that someone breathed it into Rav Hutner’s soul.  Rav Hutner in turn raised two generations of talmidim who propelled the Chofetz Chaim’s clarion call four decades forward into the 1970s where they answered it by raising the banner of revolution in the name of kiruv.

But it all began with Rav Kook z”l and will only end with the arrival of Moshiach speedily in our days.