If you speak with Dr. Joseph Rozehzadeh for a little while, you realize that this is a man with a lot going on.

He is a dentist in a busy dental practice with a few offices, including Verona Dental Group, listed in NJTopDentists.com and with five stars on Doctor.WebMD.com. He and his wife, Lori, have seven children, ranging in age from 7 to 22. And three years ago he helped establish one of West Orange’s Sephardic shuls, Congregation Zichron Dovid (see the Jewish Link news story, Sept 6, 2021), that now attracts
40-45 people on Shabbos and 50-60 people on the chagim.

Yet as Rozehzadeh explained to The Jewish Link, he’s had a dream since he moved to West Orange over 20 years ago to establish a boys yeshiva, with serious yeshivish hashkafa, in the community.

On Rosh Chodesh Elul, Rozehzadeh officially launched Yeshiva Gedola of West Orange / Beit Knesset Zichron Dovid, which is based in the Zichron Dovid building. The yeshiva serves post-high school boys ages 18-21 and has a starting class of 10 bochurim. The yeshiva is intended to build on the students’ experience in high school yeshivot with intensive Gemara study and to prepare them for study in noted Israeli yeshivot, such as the Mir and Brisk Yeshiva.

As Rozehzadeh explained, the yeshiva is designed to provide three years of “high level learning” that prepares the students for their studies in Israel. It features a demanding schedule that includes a full day of study, then a two hour night seder ending at 11 p.m..

The starting class comes from yeshivot in Lakewood, Monsey and Scranton, with a couple of students from Detroit.

In establishing this yeshiva, Rozehzadeh enlisted a well-respected educator with decades of experience teaching in the Yeshiva Gedolah of Detroit to serve as rosh yeshiva—Rabbi Chanoch Bresler.

Rabbi Bresler grew up in Brooklyn and attended Torah Temimah Yeshiva. He then went to Detroit to learn with the noted talmid chacham, Rabbi Leib Bakst, who had been his father’s rav as well. Rabbi Bresler learned with Rabbi Bakst for 13 years, until the rav’s passing, and then taught for 25 years in Detroit. He also served as a teacher for many years in the Camp Morasha Kollel.

Rabbi Bresler told The Jewish Link that his connection with Rozehzadeh took a curious route. One year ago, Rabbi Bresler’s father in law—Rabbi Yitzchok Cohen, a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University—took ill and went to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange. Rabbi Bresler’s sons stayed in town to visit their grandfather and his wife came in and stayed at the Rozehzadeh’s house. His sons raved to Rabbi Bresler about Rozehzadeh and said he was the type of man who would want to set up a yeshiva in his town. Rabbi Bresler took in the information but took no action at that time.

Many months later, Rabbi Bresler was actively seeking a place to set up a yeshiva. His wife said, “You should check out West Orange.” His brother in law, Rabbi Yosef Schwartzman, asked a friend, Rabbi Nosson Klein, to reach out to Rozehzadeh and ask if he wanted to support a yeshiva in his community. When Rozehzadeh offered an enthusiastic “Yes!” Schwartzman called Rabbi Bresler and recommended that he contact Rozehzadeh; he offered to give him Rozehzadeh’s phone number but Rabbi Bresler said, “I’ve already got it.” His sons came to check out the shul and reported back positively to their father. As Rabbi Bresler described it, he can truly see the “Yad Hashem” in this situation.

Rabbi Bresler’s vision for the yeshiva is that it will encourage bochurim to grow in learning and Avodat Hashem. He said that the school’s program is demanding, with students studying 13, 14, even 15 hours a day, which should prepare them well for their learning in premier yeshivot in Israel.

His personal goal is to give over the mesorah of Rabbi Bakst, who was widely known for the geshmach (delight) he took in learning and who smiled through all of his shiurim. Rabbi Bresler related an episode where someone asked the rav: “Hashem gives us bechirah (free choice), why do you want us to spend so much time learning?” The rav replied: “I wonder the exact opposite; How could you not want to spend the time learning?”

Rabbi Bresler said that “the community should realize that having a yeshiva in their midst elevates the ruchnius (spirituality) of the whole area.” He welcomes community members to relocate their preexisting chavrutas to the beit medrash of the yeshiva and to join the bochurim for davening.

Commenting on the founding of the yeshiva, Lori Rozehzadeh said: “My husband’s dream has been to have full time learning and davening in the Zichron Dovid building, which is named as a zechus for his father’s neshama. My husband gets much nachas visiting and seeing the yeshiva in action. We couldn’t be prouder and are grateful to Hashem for sending Rabbi and Rebbetzin Bresler to West Orange. We also thank all the rabbonim and rebbetzins and the entire community for welcoming the yeshiva to town.”

For more information on the yeshiva, please contact Dr. Joseph Rozehzadeh at 973-941-5304.

Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County Editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected] and he welcomes reader feedback.