Meet our Scholars in Residence
Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a tenth-generation rabbi, is an internationally
recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer. Associate Professor
of Talmud at Yeshiva University in New York City since 1966 and Rabbi Emeritus
of the Young Israel of Oceanside congregation in Oceanside, New York, he is the
author of "Understanding Judaism" and "If God Is Good, Why Is The World So Bad?"
amongst many other books. Rabbi Blech has appeared frequently on U.S. national
television and has written for a host of national magazines and scholarly
journals. A past president of both the National Council of Young Israel Rabbis,
as well as the International League for the Repatriation of Russian Jewry,
Rabbi Blech has also served as officer for the New York Board of Rabbis as
well as the Rabbinical Council of America. An unusually eloquent and gifted
speaker, as well as a profound contemporary theologian and religious spokesman
who has made a major impact on the many thousands of people he has addressed,
Rabbi Blech was ranked #16 in a listing of the fifty most influential Jews in
America and is a recipient of the American Educator of the Year Award. Born in
Zurich, Rabbi Blech lives in Manhattan with his wife Elaine.
Rabbi Joel Zeff is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hamivtar - Torat Yosef. He holds a BA in Hebrew Language from UCLA, a MS in Jewish History from Yeshiva University. He studied in various Yeshivot in Israel, including Yeshivat Har Etzion, and received Semicha from Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan of Yeshiva University.
Rabbi Zeff lived in Los Angeles for nine years, where he served as the spiritual leader of the Westwood Kehilla congregation before moving to Israel in 1994. Under his guidance, the Westwood Kehilla became one of the most dynamic outreach oriented Modern Orthodox synagogues in the Western United States.
For the decade since making aliya he was Senior Lecturer at the David Shapell College of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
In 2007 Rabbi Zeff became Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hamivtar - Torat Yosef, succeeding its founder Rabbi Chaim Brovender. In close collaboration with Ohr Torah Stone founder and chancellor, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin; Rabbi Zeff is helping to produce the next generation of Jewish leaders firmly rooted in a broad-minded Orthodoxy.
He is currently finishing a book on the philosophy of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, a favorite topic in his teaching. Rabbi Zeff is well known as a particularly exciting and edifying teacher and speaker. Joel and Donna Zeff are blessed with nine children, one son-in-law, one daughter-in-law, one grandchild, and make their home in Alon Shvut, Israel.