The Jewish Press joins Klal Yisrael in mourning the death, at age 79, of Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, a founder of Yeshiva Ohr Someach, a leading educational institution in the ba’al teshuvah movement.
He was instrumental in drawing generations of young Jewish men with little or no background in Jewish studies to intense Torah learning programs and a Torah lifestyle. An accomplished Torah scholar and author of several well-received seforim and articles on Jewish thought and practice, he spent much of his time helping beginners develop their learning skills.
He was noted for the deep interest he took in the personal lives of his students, participating in their weddings and the circumcisions and bar mitzvahs of their children. In a career that spanned four decades, he was a father figure and mentor to thousands at critical times of their lives.
Rabbi Weinbach also happened to have been a popular Jewish Press columnist when the newspaper first launched and for years afterward. His wife, Sheindel, still writes for us.
May his memory be a blessing.