Religionאלעזר שמחה וסרמן

Simcha Wasserman

Elazar Simcha Wasserman was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva who established yeshivas in the United States and Israel.

1900 to 1992Founding Yeshiva Ohr ElchononJewish education in the United StatesPublishing his father's writings

Occupation: rabbi

Simcha Wasserman was born in 1900 in Russian Empire

Wasserman was born in the Russian Empire, the eldest of 3 sons of Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman and his wife Michla. He was a nephew of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzensky. Apart from him and his brother David, his birth family died during World War II.

He studied under his father at Yeshiva Ohel Torah in Baranovichi, then at the yeshivas of Novardok, Telz, Grodno and Kletsk. He married Feiga Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Meir Abowitz of Novardok. The couple had no children.

In 1933 he founded his first yeshiva near Strasbourg, at his father's request. In the late 1930s he went with his father to the United States and stayed there, working with the rescue committee. In the 1940s he served as dean of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in Detroit, and later founded Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in Los Angeles, named after his father.

In 1979 he moved to Jerusalem and initiated Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in Israel. He published his father's books, including Kovetz Shiurim, and promoted outreach to the wider Jewish public. He died in 1992 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.