Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld is at the forefront of worldwide kiruv, riding the waves of its changing dynamic for over four decades. But while existential questions about G-d have been replaced by the drive for self-development and success, he’s confident that every Jew is open to a higher goal

Photos: Meor and personal archives

Let me begin with a disclaimer: I cannot write with total objectivity about Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld, for there is no one who played a bigger role than he did in my wife’s and my original decision to extend our honeymoon in Israel by 45 years.

After a class taught by Rabbi Gershenfeld at Ohr Somayach’s women’s school, my wife, Judith, approached him to question some of the things he had said. His immediate response was to invite us for Shabbos.

During the course of that Shabbos, we connected and discovered that we were both the oldest sons in all boy families, both had mothers of wide-ranging intellectual interests — his mother was a nationally renowned psychologist — and grandfathers who were very active in the Conservative movement.

Indeed, we were supposed to enter Yale Law School in the same class. Alas, by the time we finally met six years later, Rabbi Gershenfeld had already learned through at least half of Shas, and I had not yet opened a Gemara, though at least I had decided to leave the practice of law.

That Shabbos, Rabbi Gershenfeld arranged for us to meet Rav Nachman Bulman a”h on the way back from davening at Ohr Somayach, and Rav Bulman became our primary spiritual guide that summer and for years afterward. Within a few days, Reb Beryl had also arranged an apartment for us next door to Ohr Somayach. (If possible, Reb Beryl played an even larger role in my late brother Mattisiyahu’s decision to enter Machon Shlomo, and they learned together until my brother’s petirah.)

That first meeting with Reb Beryl took place at the very outset of his career teaching, just six years after he first entered Shema Yisrael, the forerunner of both Ohr Somayach and Aish HaTorah.

Today, Rabbi Gershenfeld, my neighbor in Har Nof, is arguably the most important figure in kiruv worldwide. He serves as rosh yeshivah of both Machon Shlomo, founded by his late father-in-law Rabbi Yaakov Rosenberg in 1983, and Machon Yaakov, which he initiated in 2005 and named after Rabbi Rosenberg. The Machons, as they are known, are both two-year programs, with a total of approximately 60 students annually. Their small size allows Rabbi Gershenfeld to develop each talmid individually.

He’s also founder and creator of Meor, a network of campus outreach organizations that began on one university campus in 2005 and currently includes centers on 20 campuses and three alumni centers, with over 35,000 alumni of Meor learning programs.