Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld

Zvi Aryeh Benzion Rosenfeld (1922 – 11 December 1978) was an American rabbi and educator credited with introducing Breslov Hasidism to the United States. Teaching children, teens, and adults in New York City for nearly three decades, he inspired a large percentage of his students from non-religious and Modern Orthodox homes to become Hasidic, and also acquainted them with the teachings of the 19th-century Hasidic master Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. He led the first official group of American Breslovers to Rebbe Nachman's grave in Uman, Ukraine, in 1963, and arranged for the first English translation of two key Breslov texts, Shivchei HaRan and Sichot HaRan. He was also an active supporter of the Breslov community in Israel, raising charity funds on behalf of needy families and the majority of funds for the construction of the Breslov Yeshiva in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Early life and education Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld was born in 1922 in Gdynia, Poland, to Rabbi Yisrael Abba Rosenfeld and his wife Liba Leah.

Rosenfeld also taught Sephardic students at the Magen David day school in Bensonhurst, and gave classes at the two main synagogues for the Syrian Jewish community, Shaarei Tzion and Achiezer. Students of Rosenfeld, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, became the Breslov teachers of the next generation in America and Israel. They had four children.

In 1979, one year after Rosenfeld's death, his son-in-law, Chaim Kramer, established the Breslov Research Institute to continue the effort to translate and publish Breslov teachings in English.