Religionיחיאל מיכל דורפמן

Michel Dorfman

Yechiel Michel Dorfman was a Breslov rabbi who kept the yearly Rosh Hashanah gathering in Uman alive in secret under Soviet rule and later led the Breslov community in Jerusalem.

1913 to 2006Secret Rosh Hashanah gatherings in UmanGuiding visitors to Rebbe Nachman's graveLeading Jerusalem's Breslov community

Died: 30 July 2006, Jerusalem
Occupation: rabbi

Michel Dorfman was born in 1913 in Kamianets-Podilskyi

Dorfman was born in 1913 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, in western Ukraine, to Rabbi Yehoshua David Halevi Dorfman. He joined the Breslov Hasidim in his early teens. He moved to Uman and studied closely with Rabbi Abraham Sternhartz.

In 1930 he married Rivkah, the granddaughter of Sternhartz. During the Great Purge he fled to Leningrad, where he and his wife lived through World War II. After the war he was arrested, held in Lubyanka prison in Moscow and then exiled to Siberia, until Stalin died in 1953 and he was allowed to settle in Moscow.

In Russia he worked as a tailor, shoemaker and bookbinder, and was also certified as a shochet. Breslov Hasidim scattered across the country called him before each Rosh Hashanah to learn about the secret trip to Uman. He led prayers at the hidden services near the grave of Rebbe Nachman, and from the mid-1960s he guided foreign visitors to the site, though they had no permits to go there.

After years of requests he received an exit visa and moved to Israel, where he headed the Breslov yeshiva in Meah Shearim. In 1979 he traveled to the United States to stop a plan to build over Rebbe Nachman's grave, and with others reached President Jimmy Carter, who acted to cancel it. After Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Bender died, Dorfman led the Breslov community in Meah Shearim.

He died in Jerusalem on 30 July 2006 and was buried on the Mount of Olives. He left three daughters.