Rabbi Dov Revel
דוב ב"ר נחום שרגא
Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon (RIETS)Date of Death:
Mon. December 2, 1940 -
Kislev 2 5701
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Directions to Kever: Mount Carmel Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens maintains computerized records and will provide a detailed location map upon request. Location: Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, Section: 1, Block: C, Map: 1A, Lot: 16 Grave: 4, floor-stone
Name Listed on Cemetery Database: REVEL, BERNARD
Biographical Notes:
Credit: Yeshiva University
Photo Credit: Institute For Judaic Culture and History (IFJCAH)
Credit: Yeshiva University
Photo Caption: A partial list of famous Rabonim and Admorim who guest lectured at RIETS, among them HaRav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, Kaminetzer Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Aaron Kotler of Kletzk (later of Lakewood) and Chief Rabbi Avroham Yitzchok HaKoen Kook. Source: The Story of Yeshiva University, Gilbert Klaperman, p. 169
Photo Caption: Mrs. Sara Revel as a guest speaker In Yonkers, Source: The Yonkers Statesman, February 4, 1931
Photo Caption: Published by Rabbi Eliezer Hirschel Revel, Credit: Anshe Sholom Chabad, Kew Gardens, NY
Photo Caption: Yeshiva Of America, Source: Needed
Bio Information:
A number of books have been published on the life and times of the Rav Dov Revel since his passing. Among them, Bernard Revel: Builder of American Jewish Orthodoxy, by Rav Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff
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This person was known in his lifetime as the one who took RIETS which was a yeshiva and made it into a college. The ehrliche yidden in america at the time were strongly mocheh against him led by R’ Nosson Vachtfogel zt”l
On the other hand many agreed with him.
He brought Rav Shimon Shkop to RIETS.
A once heard a story from Rabbi Diamond (Rav Davis?s SIL):
A group of boys in the yeshiva were so outrage with the decision, that in protest they left RIETS to learn in a nearby shule. It was in that shule that Rav Nosson Wachtfogel met Rabbi Yehuda Davis and along with Rav Avigdor Miller went to Slabodka.
So in away he gets credit for them going back to Europe to learn!!!!!!!!
Rav Dov (Bernard) Revel learned in Volozhin and also had a doctorate.
@goldvasser: What you wrote is a real perversion of the facts. It’s almost false enough to make it into an Artscroll book.
There was no RIETS before Rav Revel. It was a cheder for children which he grew into a high school, which obvioulsy had secular studies. He eventually opened a college so that the yeshiva students would be able to continue their torah studies while pursuing a degree which they would have done anyway in a non Jewish atmosphere.
Obviouly there were some decisions he made that were protested against by lots of rabbonim but they were mostly older European rabbis who did not understand what he was creating and why there was a real need for it.
If people wan’t to compain against Rabbi Samuel Belkin for taking it from a Yeshiva College to a real University, maybe that’s another story.
Rav revel never learned in Volozhin. He was from Pren where his father was Rav, and close friends with R Yitzchak Elchonoin Spektor. His father was buried near R Yitzchak Elchonon in one ohel in Kovno,
Rav Revel learned in Telshe for a short time. He was known as the Prener ilui.
He also learned by R Yitzchak Blazer and in the Kovno Kollel.
Anyone interested in this remarkable individual should read:
Bernard Revel: Builder of American Jewish Orthodoxy by Aaron Rothkoff
Your right – he was only born in 5646, so he couldn’t have learned there (at least not before it closed down).
Maybe when it reopened ?
No. He learned in Telz.
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=2714&st=&pgnum=136
DECEMBER 3, 1940
Body of Revel, Dead at 55, Lies in State at Yeshiva
NEW YORK –
The body of Dr. Bernard Revel, president of Yeshiva College, who died early this morning at the age of 55 in Mt. Sinai Hospital after a week’s illness, lay in state today in the Yeshiva synagogue, where students will hold prayers all night until the services at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
The services will be held in the Yeshiva auditorium with eulogies delivered by Rabbi Joseph Konvitz, of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, of which Dr. Revel was honorary president; Rabbi Aaron D. Burack for the Yeshiva faculty, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein for the alumni, Dr. Pinchos Churgin, president of the Yeshiva Teachers’ Institute, and Samuel Levy, president of the Yeshiva board of directors.
Burial will be at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Cypress Hills, L.I., where eulogies will be delivered at the grave by Rabbi Leo Jung of The Jewish Center, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi Samuel Marcus of the Teachers’ Institute faculty and a student representative.
Numerous messages of tribute and condolence were received by the Yeshiva today from Jewish leaders and organizations.
Dr. Revel’s completion of 25 years as president of the orthodox rabbinical seminary was to have been celebrated at the annual Yeshiva dinner on Dec. 15.
Dr. Revel had lived in the United States for 33 years and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Dropsie College. Previously he has studied at the Kovno Yeshiva in his native city, which is now Kaunas, Lithuania. He was the son of Rabbi Nahum Shraga Revel.
In 1916 Dr. Revel founded the Yeshiva in New York. He was vice-president of the Jewish Acadany of Arts and Sciences, associate editor of “Ozar Israel,” the Hebrew encyclopedia, and author of many articles on religious subjects. His widow, the former Sarah Rabinowitz of Marietta, Ohic, and two sons survive him.
http://archive.jta.org/article/1940/12/03/2850255/body-of-revel-dead-at-55-lies-in-state-at-yeshiva
Respectfully, I would suggest evidence he learned and was ordained at 16 at Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak-Kaminetz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivas_Knesses_Beis_Yitzchak-Kaminetz
as many have pointed out he couldn’t studied at the Kovno Kollel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kovno_Kollel , because by 1891 (when Revel was 6) I have read that it was closed down and people like Rabbi Blazer mentioned by many of his bio had moved onto Slabodka Kollel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivas_Knesses_Yisrael_(Slabodka) (but the leaders there were sometimes referred to as “from Kovno”, as in “Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spector from Kovno” -hence the errors some make in assumption it was the “Kovno Kollel”).
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzchak_Blazer but in 1897 (When Revel was 8) there was a breakaway from the Slobodka Kollel and Knesses_Beis_Yitzchak-Kaminetz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivas_Knesses_Beis_Yitzchak-Kaminetz which i think would be the closest Hashkafic match, no?
(My Previous comment has a small error – it should of said – “When Revel was 12” when Knesses_Beis_Yitzchak-Kaminetz opened as a break-away from Slobodka in 1897. )
I should add with humility, I also might be thinking about this the wrong way, as a recognized prodigy Revel might of been passed on from teacher to teacher in a fairly unstructured way and his formal ordination an afterthought: “..Study for its own sake was the goal of the yeshiva. Those seeking rabbinic ordination in order to secure employment would study certain law codes of practical application and be certified as rabbis by their teachers. The yeshiva was not a rabbinical school to train rabbis, although at times they may have indicated this to the Russian government for political purposes…” https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/lithuanian-yeshivas-of-the-nineteenth-century-creating-a-tradition-of-learning But there was always the question of politics and even personal financing: “..Kovno-born Dov (Bernard) Revel learned in the mussar kloiz of Rav Yitzchok Blazer as well as in the Telshe Yeshivah under Rav Yosef Leib Bloch. In 1905, he was thrust into the turmoil of the Russian Revolution and arrested for his involvement in printing anti-government polemics. While imprisoned in a dirty, dark cell, he gave significant thought to his future and soon after his release, he headed for America and enrolled at RIETS..”
https://mishpacha.com/a-head-of-his-time-the-life-and-times-of-the-meitscheter-illui-rav-shlomo-polachek/ The point of Revel enrolling at RIETS in 1905 was perhaps for the stipend, as that would match Revel’s distress of the RIETS student strikes of 1908 for a higher stipend as documented By Eli Genauer here: https://seforimblog.com/2017/05/the-1908-student-strike-at-rabbi-isaac/