Klausenburger Rebbe - R' Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905–1994), Poland, Romania, Brooklyn, Netanya; Survived Auschwitz, where his wife and ten of his children were murdered. Was assigned to a work unit in the Warsaw Ghetto, then sent to Dachau, and the Muldorf Forest. In 1946, established court in Williamsburg, NY. In 1958, established Kiryat Sanz in Netanya. Later established Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Ohr Gedalyahu - Rav Gedaliah Schorr (1910-1979), Poland, New York; Prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva, regarded as the "first American Gadol" by Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Rabbi Meir Shapiro, rosh yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin, remarked that R' Schorr had the most brilliant mind he ever encountered.
Rashi - R' Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105), Troyes, France. "Rabban Shel Yisrael" - The great Rishon who wrote commentary on all areas of Torah.
Darchei Moshe – Rama - Rav Moshe Isserles (1520-1572), Poland; Primary Halachic authority for European Jewry, author of Sefer HaMappah (Hagahot HaRama) on Shulchan Arukh, and Darchei Moshe on Tur.
Vilna Gaon - (The Gra) R' Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-1797), Vilnius, Poland, Lithuania. Foremost leader of misnagdic Jewry of the past few centuries. Considered the father of the stream of Lithuanian Kabbalah, and remembered as a leader of the opposition to the Hasidic movement.
Ramban - Nachmanides – R' Moshe ben Nachman (1194-1270), Girona, Spain, and Akko, Israel. A leading Torah scholar of the middle ages who authored commentaries on Torah and the Talmud. Ramban's Torah commentary often critiques earlier commentaries and incorporates kabbalistic teachings. In 1267, aged 72, he settled in Akko.
Chida - R' Chaim Yosef David Azulai (1724-1806), Jerusalem, Africa, and Europe; Jerusalem born scholar and pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious writings. Elected in 1755 to become an emissary for the small Jewish community in Israel; would travel around Europe extensively, making an impression in every Jewish community that he visited.
B'Yam Derech - Rabbi Yechiel Michel Zilber shlit"a; Rosh Yeshiva Zvhil in Yerushalayim. Former Rosh Yeshiva Itri. Popular Maggid Shiur who learned in Slonim Yeshiva and was a talmid of the Netivot Shalom. Also learned in Slabodka Yeshiva, before moving to Yerushalayim.
Ba’al Shem Tov - R' Yisrael ben Eliezer (1700-1760), Poland, Ukraine; Founder of the Chasidic movement. His teachings made kabbalistic teachings accessible to the common Jew and emphasized ways of drawing closer to the Divine outside of traditional framework of Torah study.
R' Chanoch Henoch of Sochatchov (1896-1965), Poland, Yerushalayim; Fourth Sochatchover Rebbe. Son of R' Shmuel Bornsztain, the Shem MiShmuelm 2nd Sochatchover Rebbe. Moved to Yerushalayim in 1924 to establish a Beis Midrash in Bayit VeGan, while his older brother R' Dovid stayed in Poland and was killed together with his family in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Chafetz Chaim - R’ Yisrael Meir ha-Kohen Kagan (1838-1933), known popularly as the Chofetz Chaim, after his book on lashon hara, who was also well known for the Mishna Berurah, his book on ritual law, was an influential Lithuanian Jewish rabbi, Halakhist, posek, and ethicist whose works continue to be widely influential in Orthodox Jewish life.
Tanna debei Eliyahu Zuta - A Midrash that reworks earlier Midrashim, using them to highlight ideas like the importance of Tefilla and Torah study. Some date the work as early as the 3rd century CE, while others date it as later as the 10th century.
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz (1902-1979), Poland, Shanghai, Yerushalayim; Grandson of the Alter of Novhardok. Member of the faculty of the Mirrer Yeshiva for more than 40 years, in Poland, Shanghai and Jerusalem, serving as Rosh yeshiva during its sojourn in Shanghai from 1941-47, and in Jerusalem from 1965-79. Well known for his ability to become totally engrossed in his Torah study for hours at a time. His ethical discourses, many of which have been published in English, are considered classics. During the Six-Day War, when the yeshiva was within range of Jordanian artillery fire, Rav Shmuelevitz sent some of his father's handwritten manuscripts to America with his uncle, Avraham Yoffen, with specific instructions that he carry them by hand and not put them in his luggage, because, "Dos iz meyn gantze leben (This is my whole life)."
Ma'ayan HaMoed - Rabbi Shalom Meir Wallach shlit"a (born 1947), Israel; A Vizhnitz chassid, born in Israel and grew up in Tel Aviv, learning at the Slobodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Ma'ayan HaMoed is a collection of articles written in the weekly Shas newsletter - El HaMa'ayan.
Imrei Emes - R’ Avraham Mordechai Alter (1865–1948), Poland, Yerushalaim; Known as the Imrei Emes after the works he authored, was the fourth Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1905 until his death in 1948. With the outbreak of the 1948 War, was trapped in Yerushalayim and died of natural causes during Shavuot during the siege of the city by the Jordanian Arab Legion. As bodies could not be removed to the Har HaZeitim during wartime, he was buried in the yeshiva courtyard on the condition that he would be reburied elsewhere after the war. However, his sons and successors, the Beis Yisrael and Lev Simcha, declined to go through with the reburial.
Chiddushei HaRim - R' Yitzchak Meir Rotenberg-Alter (1799-1866) Prussian Poland; First Gerrer Rebbe. Descendant of Rashi. Student of Rebbe Simcha Bunim of Prshischathe and the Kotzker Rebbe. Chiddushei HaRim is a composite of two works: Sefer HaZechut, Chidushei HaRim v'Gur Aryeh.
