Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber
Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber, a Russian-speaking Rabbi and halachic authority, founded the Russian-speaking religious community in Eretz Yisroel.
Rav Yitzchak Zilber
Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber, a Russian-speaking Rabbi and halachic authority, founded the Russian-speaking religious community in Eretz Yisrael.
Rav Yitzchok Zilber, native of Kazan, Russia descends from a distinguished family of rabbanim.
Rav Zilber was born months before the Russian Revolution in 1917. His father refused to allow him to attend the local anti-religious school and instead taught him at home.
By the time he was 15, Rav Zilber was giving shiurim throughout the city, despite the fact that it was against the law. His brilliance helped him gain admittance to university, where he trained as a mathematics professor.
After World War II, Rav Zilber was imprisoned in Stalin's gulag, where, despite the inhuman conditions, he managed with great mesirat nefesh to remain Shomer Shabbat.
After he was released, he went back to Kazan. There he refused to let his children go to school on Shabbat, and the KGB wanted to take his children away from him. He fled to Tashkent and, in 1972, he moved to Israel. By then, he had completed Shas several times. Even his son Ben Tzion, the present leader of Toldot Yeshurun, was able to learn half of Shas by heart while growing up under Soviet persecution.
Once in Eretz Yisroel, Rav Zilber was shocked at what he found – people everywhere were being mechalel Shabbat. He recalled how when he first arrived in Yerushalayim, there wasn' t a single baal tshuva among Russian immigrants.
He worked to reverse this trend by reaching out to the local Russian population. There were times on Friday night when his wife could not put her candles on the table because up until a few minutes before Shabbat, Rav Zilber was performing brit milas there.
Rav Zilber was also moser nefesh to help Russian women receive gittin. He went to great lengths, searching for missing husbands all over the world.
He died a few hours before Tisha B'Av 5764 (2004). The fast notwithstanding, a huge number of people gathered for his funeral which turned into a mourning for the destroyed Temple.
His cause is countinued by his children and talmidim. His only son – Rav Ben Tzion Zilber – took up the place of his late father as the leader of Toldot Yeshurun. His daughter – Rebbetzin Chava Kuperman – is leading various programs for women.
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