Karlin-Stolin (Hasidic dynasty)
Hasidic dynasty founded in Karlin, near Pinsk, in the 1760s; its Rebbe lives in the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze'ev
| Karlin-Stolin | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1762 Karlin, a suburb of Pinsk (now Belarus) |
| Founder | Aharon of Karlin ("Aharon the Great", 1736–1772) |
| Leader | Rebbe Baruch Meir Yaakov Shochet |
| Headquarters | Givat Ze'ev, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank (Rebbe's home); Jerusalem |
| Type | Hasidic dynasty |
| Notes | |
Karlin-Stolin is a Hasidic dynasty named after Karlin, a suburb of Pinsk, and the nearby town of Stolin, both now in Belarus. It was the first Hasidic group established in Lithuania.[1][3] Most of its followers were murdered in the Holocaust.[4] The dynasty was rebuilt in the United States and Israel. Its present Rebbe, Baruch Meir Yaakov Shochet, lives in Givat Ze'ev, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, where the Hasidim occupy a block of six apartment buildings.[1][2][5]
History
Lithuania and Polesia
Aharon of Karlin (1736–1772), known as Aharon the Great, was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch. He opened a Hasidic prayer house in Karlin in 1762. He published no works, but his Sabbath hymn "Yah ekhsof" is still sung on Friday evenings in many Hasidic courts.[1] According to the historian Zeev Rabinowitsch, Karlin was "the scene of the rise of hasidism in Lithuania", and Aharon was then "the one and only hasidic Rebbe in Lithuania".[3] The spread of Aharon's teaching provoked the misnagdim, the rabbinic opponents of Hasidism, who began a campaign against the "Karliners" in the early 1770s; early misnagdic writings often used "Karliners" for Hasidim in general.[1]
Tzvi Rabinowicz writes that Aharon died in 1772 at the age of 36. He describes him as an ascetic who advised each follower to spend one day a week alone in a room, fasting, repenting and studying the Torah, and says that his Sabbath melody Yah Echsof was still the favourite in the courts of Novominsk, Koidanov, Kobrin and Slonim. Aharon's elder son, Yaakov, and his son-in-law, Avraham Hasid, settled in the Land of Israel.[6]
After Aharon's death his closest disciple, Shlomo of Karlin, led Lithuanian and Belorussian Hasidism for 20 years. He was obliged to leave Karlin in 1786 and moved to Ludmir. Aharon's son Asher Perlov (1765–1826) then took over. After denunciations by the misnagdim, the tsarist authorities jailed him in 1798. Asher's son Aharon II (1802–1872) led the movement at the height of its growth and wrote Bet Aharon (published 1875). In 1864, after a dispute with the wealthy Lurie family, he moved the court to Stolin.[1][7]
Rabinowicz gives the dates of Asher Perlov as 1765–1822, where YIVO gives 1765–1826. He writes that Asher made his home in Stolin and that his followers therefore became known as the Karlin and Stolin Hasidim; YIVO dates the move of the court to Stolin to 1864, under Aharon II.[6][1]
Aharon II's son Asher II died in 1873, a year after his father. The Hasidim then appointed Asher II's four-year-old son, Yisrael Perlov (1869–1921), as their leader; he was known as the "Yenuka" (child) of Stolin. Like most Hasidic leaders he opposed Zionism, but he supported settlement in the Land of Israel by his followers. After his death his four sons led separate communities. Two of them, Moshe (d. 1942) and Avraham Elimelech (d. 1943), died during the Holocaust.[1]
Rabinowicz gives different dates for this period. He writes that Asher II died of the plague in Drohobycz on 17 Sivan 1872, after only a year as rabbi, and that Yisrael was born on 10 Kislev 1868 and was four years old at the time. Elsewhere in the same book he gives the Yenuka's dates as 1873–1921.[8][9] According to Rabinowicz, Hasidim travelled long distances to Stolin to see the child, who formally took over the leadership at his bar mitzvah in 1881. As an adult he used his Russian and German to intercede with the authorities, held a musical Melaveh Malkah and sang liturgical pieces in a quartet with his sons. He sent emissaries to raise money for the Karlin kollel in the Land of Israel and paid for many families to settle in Palestine. He died at Bad Homburg on the second day of Rosh Hashanah 1921 and was buried in Frankfurt.[8] Rabinowicz writes that his son Moshe visited the Holy Land in 1933 and 1937 and set up a shtiebl (small prayer house) in Tel Aviv, and that Avraham Elimelech visited twice between 1922 and 1939 and was killed by Ukrainians in the Pinsk Ghetto on 14 Heshvan 1943.[8]
The Holocaust and after
About 95 per cent of the Karliner community was murdered in the Holocaust.[4] Yochanan Perlov, the Yenuka's son and rabbi in Lutsk, escaped by fleeing to the Soviet Union. In 1946 he went to Palestine and lived in Haifa as the Stolin-Karlin Rebbe. In 1950 he moved to the United States, where he died.[1] In 1957 he was reburied in the old Hasidic cemetery in Tiberias.[10]
Rabinowicz's account differs in some details. He writes that Yochanan, his wife and their two daughters spent a year with the partisans and were then deported to Siberia, where his wife and elder daughter died. After the war he passed through the Feldafing displaced persons camp in Germany and reached the Holy Land in 1946. He lived for a time in Haifa and moved to New York in 1948, where he founded the Bet Yisrael yeshiva and published Bet Aharon Ve'Yisrael. YIVO dates the move to the United States to 1950.[1] Rabinowicz says Yochanan revisited the Holy Land for Rosh Hashanah 1955, died in New York on 21 Kislev 1956, aged 51, and was reburied in Tiberias on 18 Adar II.[11]
Yochanan's maternal grandson, Baruch Meir Yaakov Shochet, inherited the leadership and led the group from Brooklyn. He moved to Jerusalem in 1991.[1] In 2014 the Jewish Herald-Voice columnist Teddy Weinberger wrote that the Rebbe had moved from Borough Park to Israel 22 years earlier and to Givat Ze'ev about 18 years earlier.[2]
According to Rabinowicz, many Karlin Hasidim, left without a leader, turned to Moshe Mordecai Biderman, the Rebbe of Lelov, who on 15 Av 1962 became "Rebbe of the Lelov and Karlin hasidim". Other Karlin Hasidim, in the old yishuv of Jerusalem, in Haifa, Tel Aviv and the United States, and at the Bet Aharon yeshiva, did not accept this and waited for Yochanan's grandson to grow up.[11][12] Rabinowicz writes that Baruch Meir Halevi Shochet was born in New York in 1955 to Yochanan's only daughter, Feiga, and her husband, Ezra Shochet. He married in March 1975 and officially became Rebbe of Karlin and Stolin then. That marriage ended in divorce in 1977, and in 1978 he married Hayyah Miriam Steinwurzel, a daughter of Moshe David Steinwurzel, principal of the Bobov yeshiva. Rabinowicz lists eleven children from the two marriages.[13] He credits the Rebbe with reviving the Karlin-Stolin institutions in Israel and the United States and with work for Jewish revival in the former Soviet Union.[12]
Rebbes and succession
| Rebbe | Dates | Base | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aharon of Karlin ("the Great") | 1736–1772 | Karlin | Founder; disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch.[1] |
| Shlomo of Karlin | – | Karlin; Ludmir from 1786 | Aharon's disciple and successor; led for 20 years.[1] |
| Asher Perlov | 1765–1826 (YIVO); 1765–1822 (Rabinowicz) | Karlin; Stolin | Son of Aharon; imprisoned in 1798.[1][6] |
| Aharon II Perlov | 1802–1872 | Karlin; Stolin from 1864 | Author of Bet Aharon.[1][7] |
| Asher II Perlov | d. 1873 (YIVO); 1872 (Rabinowicz) | Stolin | Son of Aharon II.[1][8] |
| Yisrael Perlov, the "Yenuka" | 1869–1921 (YIVO); 1868–1921 (Rabinowicz) | Stolin | Son of Asher II; led from the age of four; formally took over at his bar mitzvah in 1881 (Rabinowicz).[1][8] |
| Yochanan Perlov | d. 1955 (YIVO); 1956 (Melamed; Rabinowicz) | Lutsk; Haifa (1946); United States (1950, YIVO; 1948, Rabinowicz) | Son of the Yenuka.[10][1][11] |
| Baruch Meir Yaakov Shochet | born 1955; Rebbe from 1975 (Rabinowicz) | Brooklyn; Jerusalem (1991); Givat Ze'ev | Maternal grandson of Yochanan.[1][2][13] |
The Yenuka's other sons were Moshe (d. 1942) in Stolin, Avraham Elimelech (d. 1943) in Karlin and Yaakov in Brooklyn. The Ludmir and Sambor dynasties, led by descendants of Shlomo of Karlin, are offshoots; there are Sambor rebbes in the Bronx, New York, and in Buenos Aires.[1]
Institutions
Israel
Karlin Hasidim bought the ruined house of Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk in Tiberias in 1869 and rebuilt it as a Karliner synagogue. The house had collapsed in the Galilee earthquake of 1837. In 1949 the local authority demolished most of the old city of Tiberias, including seven synagogues, but local Hasidim persuaded it to spare this house. After Yochanan Perlov was reburied in Tiberias in 1957, the Hasidim set up a mesivta (rabbinic school) in the building.[10]
Tzvi Rabinowicz writes that a group of Karlin Hasidim set up a shtiebl in Tiberias in the house used by Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk at the end of the 18th century, and that after several renovations it became known as Mesifta De'Rabbi Yohanan.[6] Elsewhere he dates the Karlin Hasidim's takeover of the house to the middle of the 19th century; Melamed gives 1869.[14][10] Rabinowicz says the rebbes of Karlin regularly appealed for support for Jewish settlement in the Holy Land. In the second half of the 19th century small groups of Karlin Hasidim lived in Safed and Jerusalem, and there was a Karlin kollel guided by Moshe Dov and later by Mordecai Sheftel Wahrhaftig.[6][8]
Rabinowicz writes that the Central Institutions of Karlin and Stolin, Bet Aharon V'Yisrael, had more than 2,000 students. They included a rabbinical college, seven kollelim, a yeshiva high school, a junior yeshiva, an elementary school, a girls' school, a teachers' seminary, kindergartens, dormitories, a fund for the needy, a society for visiting the sick, a kitchen serving nearly 1,000 meals a day, evening classes and a hostel for Russian immigrants. He lists six places of worship in Jerusalem, one in "Betar Elat" (Beitar Illit) and one in Givat Ze'ev, and puts the annual budget at more than 15 million shekels.[13][6] Beitar Illit and Givat Ze'ev are Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law".[15]
Occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank
Karlin-Stolin Hasidim settled in Jerusalem in about 1870. They set up the Beis Aharon synagogue in the Old City, named after Aharon II's book. The synagogue was destroyed in the 1948 war, and the community moved to the Beit Yisrael neighbourhood of West Jerusalem, where it built a new synagogue.[16]
The group's educational institution for girls, "Beit Bracha", is at 24 Ovadia Street in the Geula neighbourhood of West Jerusalem. The building is the house that the British consul James Finn built in 1855. It was handed to the Karlin Hasidim in the 1980s, on condition that they preserve it under the guidance of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the municipality. An ancient Roman columbarium (dovecote) lies beneath the site.[17] Haaretz reported in 2004 that Beit Bracha was the movement's flagship institution, with 500 girls from nursery to eighth grade, and that an archaeological park had been dedicated in its main courtyard in 2000.[18] According to Friedman, quoted by the paper, the Karlin Hasidim received funding from the Ministry of Education and the local authorities to set up Beit Bracha, and the money was used to buy the historic building. The Karliners promised the Jerusalem municipality that they would restore the building, which had stood empty for a long time. Rabbi Schorr told the paper that the work was done under the supervision of the architect David Kroyanker. The columbarium was found by chance and restored with the help of donors recruited by the community.[18] Friedman said the Karliners had cut their ties with anti-Zionists and set up Beit Bracha in its current form in the early 1980s.[18]
Haaretz also reported that the group ran Bat Zion, a school for Russian immigrants with 45 girls, some of whom came through the Na'aleh programme, and that Karliner emissaries in Russia recruited Jewish young people for the group's schools in Israel.[18]
The Rebbe's home is in Givat Ze'ev, near Jerusalem. Karlin-Stolin Hasidim there occupy a block of six apartment buildings, and the Rebbe holds his main tisch (communal meal) there on Friday nights.[5][2] Givat Ze'ev is an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. In 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law".[15]
United States
Yochanan Perlov's siddur (prayer book), Beis Aharon V'Yisrael, was published in New York in 1952.[19] The Rebbe led the group from Brooklyn until 1991, and many Karliner Hasidim still live there.[1][2]
Politics
Zionism and the Israeli state
The Yenuka, Yisrael Perlov, opposed political Zionism but supported settlement in the Land of Israel by his own followers.[1]
Haaretz reported in 2004 that the Karlin Hasidim and their Rebbe had "paid a heavy price for their willingness to take money from the state": years of ostracism, violent attacks and pashkevilim (wall posters), one of which proclaimed "Vehashochet shachat". The paper said the violence peaked in about 1999, when people it described as fanatics surrounded the Karliner yeshiva between the Beit Yisrael and Bukharim neighbourhoods while the Rebbe was inside, and that "some say he moved to Givat Ze'ev because of all the tension".[18]
Covid-19
In August 2021, during a surge in Covid-19 cases, Karlin-Stolin cancelled its mass prayer services for the Jewish holidays. It told followers to stay at home for Rosh Hashanah and not to visit the Rebbe or rent rooms near his home in Givat Ze'ev. World Israel News called this "unprecedented" for a Hasidic group in Israel.[5]
Finances and charities
US non-profits linked to the dynasty are listed on Karlin-Stolin non profits in the US.
See also
External links
- Yeshiva Karlin Stolin (official website)
- Hasidim in Pinsk and Karlin (JewishGen translation of the Pinsk yizkor book)
- Kahal Chasidim She'aris Yaakov
Notes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 Allan Nadler, Karlin-Stolin Hasidic Dynasty YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Teddy Weinberger, The Rebbe's tisch Jewish Herald-Voice, 31 July 2014, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Zeev Rabinowitsch, Hasidim in Pinsk and Karlin Pinsk yizkor book (JewishGen translation), accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Reclaiming the Cultural and Musical Heritage of the Karliner Hasidim yivo.org, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Tobias Siegal, Hasidic leader orders followers to stay home during Jewish holidays due to Covid surge in Israel World Israel News, 31 August 2021, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 148.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 JewishGen KehilaLinks, Stolin: Religion JewishGen, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 149.
- ↑ Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 24.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Yitzhak Y. Melamed, A Plague on the Shores of the Sea of Galilee Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2020, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 150.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 151.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 147.
- ↑ Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 233.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 International Court of Justice, Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 icj-cij.org, 19 July 2024, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ iTravelJerusalem, Beis Aharon Synagogue itraveljerusalem.com, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Aryeh Nissan, יונה מצאה בו מנוח: קולומבריום רומאי עתיק בתוך השכונה החרדית (A dove found rest there: an ancient Roman columbarium inside the Haredi neighbourhood) Arutz 2000, 10 May 2021, accessed 26 October 2026.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 Tamar Rotem, Karliners, Not Hardliners Haaretz, 19 November 2004 (archived 21 March 2024), accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Tiferet Auctions, Lot 45: Siddur Beis Aharon V'Yisrael Stolin-Karlin, New York 1952 tiferetauctions.com, accessed 26 October 2026.