Religionשלמה בקשט

Shlomo Baksht

Shlomo Baksht is an Israeli-Ukrainian rabbi who serves as the Litvish rabbi of Odesa and heads its Litvish Jewish community.

born 1960Litvish rabbi of OdesaFounding the Jewish University of OdesaRescuing children during the 2022 invasion

Occupation: rabbi

Shlomo Baksht was born in 1960 in Petah Tikva

Shlomo Baksht was born in Petah Tikva in 1960 to an Orthodox Jewish family. His father, Haim Menahem, served as deputy chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces.

He studied at Talmud Torah Sheret Israel and then at a yeshiva where he learned with Rabbi Yakov Naiman, a student of the Hafetz Haim. He later attended the Nahalat David yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Boruch Shimon Salamon. He married in 1985 and moved to Jerusalem.

In 1991 he and his brother Dov founded the Lamed Torah kollel, where he taught until 1993. That year he moved to Odesa at the invitation of the Jewish community. There he founded a Jewish school in 1994, and a new synagogue opened in 1998 and a mikveh in 2000.

In 2003 he created the Jewish University of Odesa, and in 2010 he founded the Ateret Hameleh yeshiva. In February 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he led an effort to bring hundreds of Ukrainian children to safety, driving on Shabbat because lives were at risk.