Yaakov Bleich
Yaakov Dov Bleich (born October 19, 1964) is an American-born rabbi. He is the chief rabbi of a synagoge in Kyiv.[1] and serves as vice-president of the World Jewish Congress since 2009.[2]
Biography[]
Bleich graduated from Telshe Yeshiva High School in Chicago, Illinois where he began his rabbinical studies. From 1984 to 1986, he studied at the in Jerusalem.
In 2005 he was one of three contenders for the role of chief rabbi, alongside Chabad Lubavitch appointees Azriel Chaikin (appointed 2002) and .[3] There is also a Progressive (Liberal/Reform) Rabbi in Kiev , .
In 2018, Kievan weekly magazine Focus named Bleich among the most "powerful foreigners" in the country.[4] In the same year, he was expelled from his own community,[5] but continues to publicly refer to himself as the chief rabbi as impostor.[6] Subsequently, in spite of the announced Herem, he returned to the synagogue; according to Israel journalist Shimon Briman, everything that happens is a struggle for influence between Jewish leaders.[7]
In 2019, Bleich, together with Sviatoslav Shevchuk and Epiphanius I of Ukraine, held a prayer service for members of the OUN in the Jewish cemetery of Sambir.[8][9][10]
References[]
- ^ biography – Hillel Levinson
- ^ Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, Vice-President – World Jewish Congress website
- ^ Ukrainian community split over chief rabbi, Vladimir Matveyev, Phoenix Jewish News, October 25, 2005
- ^ Breaking News – JTA, Jewish & Israel News
- ^ "שליח האדמו"ר במכתב סוער: מתנערים מהרב יעקב בלייך". September 7, 2018.
- ^ "Отсутствие Зеленского на мероприятиях в Бабьем Яру прокомментировал Михаэль Ткач".
- ^ http://www.moscow-jerusalem.ru/politika/ravviny-ukrainy-borba-za-vliyanie/
- ^ https://kresy.pl/wydarzenia/sambor-uroczyste-odsloniecie-krzyza-ku-czci-oun-upa-poswieconego-przez-abpa-szewczuka-z-udzialem-zwierzchnika-ukrainskiej-cerkwi-video-foto/ (in Polish)
- ^ In Sambir, abuse was replaced by abuse — a monument to the heroes of the OUN-UPA was opened in the cemetery with the graves of the Jews they killed (in Russian)
- ^ https://nk.org.ua/ukraina/palachi-i-jertvyi-vo-lvovskoy-oblasti-osvyatili-pamyatnik-oun-upa-ustanovlennyiy-na-evreyskom-kladbische-202907 (in Russian)
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- 1964 births
- Living people
- Ukrainian Orthodox rabbis
- 20th-century rabbis
- 21st-century rabbis
- Chief rabbis of Ukraine
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- People from Borough Park, Brooklyn
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