Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman

Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman (1900 – July 11, 1987) was a Russian-born American Talmudic scholar and rabbi who founded and served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore.

Early life Ruderman was born into a Hasidic family of the Chabad denomination in Dawhinava, in the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus), where his father, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ruderman,

While in Kremenchug, a group of gentiles abducted Rabbi Ruderman for ransom, holding him at gunpoint and demanding 10,000 rubles for his life. They took him to the home of the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, who had no money. As the kidnappers were about to kill Rabbi Ruderman, Rabbi Epstein ran outside, shouting to attract a crowd. Seeing a large group gathering, the kidnappers realized they had little chance of success and released Rabbi Ruderman unharmed. This was a story he often recounted for students at Ner Yisroel, years later.

Career In 1924, two years before receiving semikhah (rabbinical ordination), Ruderman married Faiga Kramer from a rabbinical family.

Building Torah Institutions in America In 1933, with his father-in-law's encouragement, Ruderman moved to Baltimore, where he was immediately offered a rabbinical post at the Tiferes Yisroel Shul. the founder of the mussar movement).

The yeshiva grew quickly, Ruderman was the rosh yeshiva, while his brother-in-law, Rabbi Naftoli (Herman) Neuberger, managed the yeshiva's financial affairts. Together, they built it into one of the largest yeshivas in America, producing thousands of rabbis, educators and learned laymen.

Ruderman was also involved in many aspects of Jewish communal life outside of the Yeshiva. He was a member of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel and the chairman of the Rabbinic Advisory Board of Torah Umesorah.

Works Around 1926, Ruderman published his only written work, Avodas Levi, which was republished in 1930. The book is a compilation of Rabbi Ruderman's commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, Jewish festivals, and eulogies he gave for various Torah sages. The Sefer Avodath Levi Project to preserve his legacy has been in progress. Posthumously, his students have published several volumes of his teachings: ethical insights based on the weekly parsha named Sichos Levi, later re-written and republished as Sichos Avodas Levi, lectures on the 19th century work Minchas Chinuch and other Talmudic and halachic insights in Mas'as Levi, and lectures on Sukkah, Kiddushin, Kesubos, Bava Kamma, and Bava Metzia, as Shiurei Avodas Levi.

Death Ruderman's death on July 11, 1987, the 14th of Tammuz, followed less than 18 months after the deaths of Rabbis Yaakov Kaminetsky and Moshe Feinstein. Ruderman was one of the last surviving roshei yeshiva who came to America from Lithuania early in the 20th century.

His son-in-law, Rabbi Weinberg, who married his only child, Chana, until Rabbi Weinberg's death in 1999. Weinberg's wife, Chana, died on January 23, 2012.

Ruderman was buried in Baltimore's United Hebrew Cemetery.