Term:
Spring 2022
Contact:
aaronadler@fas.harvard.edu
Aaron Adler
Ohel Nechama Community Synagogue/Israel
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Adler is a former student of, and special assistant to, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, zt”l, In addition to being a graduate of Yeshiva University in New York (B.A./M.A), with rabbinic ordination from Y.U.’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (R.I.E.T.S.), Rabbi Adler holds a Ph.D in Talmud from Bar Ilan University. Rabbi Adler and his family made aliyah in 1979. He served on the faculty of Bar Ilan University, and is a past president and campus rabbi at Emunah College for Arts and Technology in Jerusalem. He has been a lecturer for the Israel Defense Forces and a commentator for Kol Yisrael radio. Rabbi Adler was a member of the central committee of the National Religious Party. He is the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Bnei Akiva Ner Tamid, located in Hashmona’im, and currently serves as its President. Rabbi Adler is an active community pulpit Rabbi serving during the past 37 years communities in Long Island City, NY, Beersheva, Ramot- Jerusalem, Zurich-Switzerland, and most recently the Ohel Nechama community Synagogue in Katamon-Jerusalem. His current educational activities include: Lecturer at the Herzog College, OU Israel Center, and the Kollel Sinai. Most recently, Rabbi has joined the faculty of the Bet Midrash Harel [Semicha-granting institution] focusing upon modern practical Halacha – methodology and application. Rabbi Adler has also directed and led 31 heritage tours to Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania.
Rabbi Dr. Adler is a Maimonidean scholar in the academic tradition of the late Rabbi Prof. Isadore Twersky of Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University discussed the methodological shifts in Maimonides’ approach to his rabbinic sources generating hundreds of reversed decisions between his Mishnah Commentary and his Mishneh Torah codes. [Portions published in the R’ Yosef Kafiah Memorial Volume]. He has lectured at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, as well as at conferences in Krakow, St. Petersburg, and Las Vegas, along with participation at Maimonides commemoration events in Israel. Rabbi Adler has recently been awarded the prestigious Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship at Harvard University in Boston for the spring, 2022, semester.
Alongside his rabbinic and educational pursuits, Rabbi Adler has captivated audiences throughout the world with his musical talents inspired by the songs of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. It began with his initial performance as a 4th-grader at the Manhattan’s Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim Purim assembly program and has grown with time in the age of Carlebach nostalgia.
Rabbi Adler is the author of ויהי בנסוע הארון – Seventy Conversations in Transit with HaGaon HaRav Joseph B. Soloveitchik Zt”l (Urim Publications & OU Press), 2021