Berel Wein z”l

Berel Wein was born into a rabbinic family. His grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Zvi Rubinstein, was a founder of Hebrew Theological College, and his father, Rabbi Zev Wein, served as a rabbi in Chicago for fifty-one years. Rabbi Wein complemented his natural love for Torah study and teaching by educating himself in other disciplines as well: in 1954 he received a bachelor of education from Roosevelt University, and in 1956 he received a law degree from DePaul University. While pursuing his secular studies, he also completed his rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Theological College. From 1956 to 1964 he practiced law in Chicago. His love for Jewish teaching overwhelmed all other pursuits, however, and in 1964 he left Chicago to become the rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation in Miami Beach, Florida, where he entered the world of Jewish education and public service. In Miami Beach he served as leader of and as one of the main teachers at the fledgling Mesifta of Greater Miami, a Jewish high school for boys. At the same time he continued further study and earned a doctor of Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Theological College in 1967. In 1972 he became Executive Vice President of the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America, Rabbinic Administrator of its Kashruth Division, and taught at Touro College and at other institutions in the New York area. In 1973 he became the founding rabbi of Congregation Bais Torah in Suffern, New York. He founded Shaarei Torah of Rockland County in 1977, a yeshiva he still heads and in which he still teaches.

Beginning in 1984 he organized special classes in Jewish history at his synagogue and yeshiva. These popular class lectures were recorded and have been enthusiastically received. Tens of thousands of subscribers all over the world listen to Rabbi Wein’s “travels” through Jewish history. He is the author of Triumph of Survival, a book about Jewish history, and he is at work on a new book about Jewish history. Dr. James David Weiss has written a book about the life and teachings of Rabbi Wein, appropriately titled Vintage Wein.

Rabbi Wein continues to serve as pulpit rabbi, teacher of Talmud and Codes, Jewish history lecturer, author, and international public speaker. In these roles he fulfills his ambition to continue in his “family business” – to teach Torah to the people of Israel.