By Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin
There are many modern-day important and notable yeshivas with interesting histories, personalities and connections. It is also fascinating to take a look at the intersection, or cross-fertilization of great personalities, rabbis, Rosh Yeshivas (yeshiva deans) when different yeshivas, their leaders and their members interact with each other. The results can be impactful in terms of what comes out of such interactions such as important appointments of staff, significant marriages between rabbinical families, and even the establishment of new yeshivas by alumni.
The Novardok Yeshiva has an old history going back to Europe, when Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz (1847–1919) known as the Alter (elder) of Novardok founded the first Novardok Yeshiva in Novogrudok, in the Grodno region, Belarus. He was a disciple of the founder of the modern Mussar (Torah ethics) Movement Rav Yisroel (Lipkin) Salanter (1809–1883) as well as learning under some of the greatest Talmudists of his time. In pre-World War Two Europe the Alter of Novardok had amazing success in setting up a network of Novardok satellite yeshivas with thousands of students attending them. All of that was utterly destroyed during the Holocaust. After the Holocaust, there was a revival of some Novardok yeshivas in France and Israel as well as a branch that was set up in Brooklyn, New York, USA by the Alter of Novardok's son in law and successor Rav Avraham Yoffen (Jofen) (1887–1970) who survived the Holocaust.
The official name of the Novardok Yeshiva is Yeshiva Bais Yosef, the same name that was given to a number of yeshivas established in Europe by Rav Avraham Yoffen before the Holocaust. In 1962 he moved from America to Jerusalem and set up a branch of the Novardok Yeshiva and Kollel for post graduate Torah learning. In America the Novardok Yeshiva was led by both his son Rav Yaakov Chaim Yoffen (1917–2003) as the Rosh Yeshiva as well as his son in law Rav Yehuda Leib Nekritz (1907–1984) as the Mashgiach Ruchani (spiritual supervisor) of the yeshiva.
Rav Yaakov Chaim Yoffen had two sons who assisted him: Rav Refoel Aharon Yoffen (died at age 47) and Rav Mordechai Zev Yoffen (died 2024) who have both passed away. Both sons were Talmudic geniuses like their father Rav Yaakov Chaim Yoffen and their grandfather Rav Avraham Yoffen and both became Rosh Yeshivas. Rav Aharon Yoffen moved to Israel and eventually became a Rosh Yeshiva in the Chevron Yeshiva and co-headed the yeshiva in Jerusalem set up by his grandfather Rav Avraham Yoffen. Rav Mordechai Yoffen succeeded his father Rav Yaakov Yoffen as Rosh Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York.
When the Yoffen family escaped the Holocaust and came to America in 1941 they had lost their entire network of yeshivas in Europe. In America they had to start from scratch. Rav Yaakov Yoffen sent his two sons, Rav Aharon Yoffen and Rav Mordechai (Motty) Yoffen to learn at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, the American yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York headed by the famous Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906–1980) with whom Rav Yaakov Yoffen became close. This began a lifelong relationship between the Yoffen family and their Novardok Yeshiva with Rav Hutner and the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin on many levels.
The relationship between these two yeshivas was additionally extended when Shoshana Nekritz the daughter of Rav Yehuda Leib Nekritz, who was the son in law of Rav Avraham Yoffen, married Rav Yechiel Perr (1935–2024) who had been a student in the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin high school and knew its Rosh Yeshiva Rav Yitzchok Hutner. Rav Perr went on to found the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway (Yeshiva Derech Ayson) in 1969.
The following unfolded: Rav Aharon Yoffen became a Rosh Yeshiva in Jerusalem; Rav Mordechai Yoffen became the Rosh Yeshiva of the Novardok Yeshiva in Brooklyn; and Rav Yechiel Perr the Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway; all having learned in the Novardok Yeshiva in Brooklyn and being part of its leadership family and all having spent important time in their youth during their formative years learning in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchok Hutner in Brooklyn, so that important connections were set up between all concerned.
Rav Hutner was a well-known alumnus of the Slabodka Yeshiva (Yeshiva Knesses Yisroel) in Lithuania and that was then subsequently also re-established in the town of Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine (the yeshiva is now located in Jerusalem, Israel and known as the Chevron Yeshiva) founded by the Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927) known as the Alter (elder) of Slabodka. Rav Finkel had learned at the Kelm Yeshiva headed by Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv (1824–1898) who was known as the Alter (elder) of Kelm who in turn was a close disciple of Rav Yisroel Salanter the founder of the Mussar (Torah ethics) Movement. There is a direct line from Rav Hutner as a Talmid (student) of the Alter of Slabodka who was a Talmid of the Alter of Kelm who was a Talmid of Rav Yisroel Salanter who established the Mussar Movement. .
After Rav Hutner moved to America in 1934 he eventually founded its Bais Medrash yeshiva, the post high school division of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in 1940 and its Kollel Gur Aryeh post-graduate division in 1956 in Brooklyn. At the time, meaning during the years during and after World War Two (1939–1945), there were barely a handful of top-tier first class classical Talmudical schools, meaning yeshivas, in America. When the Yoffen family of the famed Novardok Yeshivas came to America they sent their sons to learn in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and in one case, for the Nekritz family of the Novardok Yeshiva, they took a son law who had learned in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin that was headed by Rav Yitzchok Hutner.
The strong cross-fertilization between the Novardok Yeshiva and the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin was additionally strengthened and reinforced in a number of other ways. In particular when Rav Mordechai Yoffen married Elisheva Carlebach the oldest daughter of Rav Shlomo Carlebach (1925–2022) (not the singer) who was a Holocaust survivor and became the Mashgiach Ruchani (spiritual supervisor) at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and one of Rav Hutner's closest disciples. Rav Shlomo Carlebach authored several works known as "Maskil LiShlomo" and a biography about his father Rav Yosef Tzvi Carlebach (1883–1942) the last rabbi of Hamburg, Germany who was murdered by the Nazis.
In addition, Rav Mordechai Yoffen selected one of his closest friends Rav Yaakov Drillman, a close disciple of Rav Yitzchok Hutner and Rav Aaron Schechter (1928–2023) who were the two most important Rosh Yeshivas of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin as his co-Rosh Yeshiva at the Novardok Yeshiva in Brooklyn. Rav Drillman had previously been a close mentor of Rav Shlomo Halioua (died 2024), the last Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. Rav Halioua was a son in law to Rav Aaron Schechter.
For the past two decades the Novardok Yeshiva was located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn nearby to where the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin is located. The Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin is the larger of the two in terms of numbers of students in attendance. Thanks to the Yoffen family the Novardok Yeshiva has an older history and carries its important name and its legacy with rightful honor and pride as the heir to a noble past of Torah scholarship and Mussar.
