Benjamin Brown

The Hazon Ish. Halakhist, Believer and Leader of the Haredi Revolution Benjamin Brown Hebrew, Hebrew Language Edition

Rabbi Avraham Yesha'ayahu Karelitz, the "Hazon Ish" (1878-1953), is recognized as the leader who charted the course of Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Judaism in the critical period following the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. He arrived in Israel at a relatively advanced age in 1933, with no source of income, contacts, or rabbinic reputation, and settled in the small town of Bnei Brak, which was then less than ten years old and housed only one yeshivah. Yet, within a few years, the Hazon Ish became the most prominent spiritual leader of Haredi Judaism, and Bnei Brak rapidly became "the city of the Torah", to a large extent thanks to him. In those years, he developed his pragmatic ideological line that he believed should be adopted by Haredi Judaism - not an approach of political isolationism, but rather one of cultural fortification, focusing on the support of religious and educational institutions.