Chaim Brovender
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Chaim Brovender is a Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist rabbi in Israel.
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[edit] Biography
Chaim Brovender was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended high school at the Yeshivah of Flatbush. He then attended Yeshiva University where he earned a B.A. in Mathematics and semicha from Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. He made aliya in 1965, and earned a doctorate in Semitic languages from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1974. While studying for his doctorate, Rabbi Brovender began teaching Judaism to students who had come to Israel for the Hebrew University's overseas program.
[edit] Yeshivat HaMivtar
While teaching at Shappell Yeshiva in Jerusalem in the mid 1970s, Rabbi Brovender decided to leave his position in 1976 to start a new yeshiva more in line with his ideals. A group of ten students followed him to Givat HaMivtar where they started the new school. From those early beginnings, Yeshivat HaMivtar has grown into a world class yeshiva located just outside of Efrat, Israel.
[edit] ATID
In 1999 Rabbi Brovender and Rabbi Jeffrey Saks founded ATID, the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education as an independent institution fostering new and significant thought, strategies, and policies for the crucial issues facing Jewish education. ATID’s long-range programs include the ATID Fellows, a training fellowship for Orthodox Jewish educators and future educational leadership; initiatives to promote a meaningful place for the arts in Torah education; proposals for school reform; professional and institutional development projects with lead-schools in Israel and the Diaspora; and a research and publishing division. Rabbi Brovender serves as President of the institute. ATID has attracted a committed team of staff and fuculty, among the leading Jewish educators in Israel, from the worlds of traditional yeshiva study, practitioners in the field, and academics. Graduates of the ATID Fellows program serve in senior educational positions in Israel and throughout the Diaspora.
[edit] Attacked
On October 5, 2000, Rabbi Brovender was attacked by a Palestinian mob after taking a detour due to road closures; he had ended up in the Arab village of Beit Jalla where he was attacked by Palestinian policemen. The policemen forced him from the car and threw him against a wall when a mob appeared and beat him brutally. After some time the police took him to their compound in Bethlehem where he was again beaten. After deciding to let him go, the Palestinian police brought a doctor to see him and cleaned him up. After speaking to an Israeli soldier who was brought by the Palestinian police, he was given a cellphone so he could call his wife, Miriam, to tell her he was alive. The Israeli soldier, after taking custody of Rabbi Brovender, took him to receive immediate medical attention where it was diagnosed that he had a punctured lung and massive internal bleeding. After the medical treatment Rabbi Brovender made a full recovery and returned to teaching in Efrat soon afterwards.
On June 12th, 2007 a dinner in honor of Rabbi Brovender will be held with multiple speakers including Rabbi Brovender himself.
[edit] WebYeshiva
In 2007 he launched WebYeshiva, the first online interactive internet yeshiva.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Levine, JJ. "Hi-tech Torah learning", The Jerusalem Post, 2008-04-24. Retrieved on 2008-05-11.
