Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh (KBY) has appointed Rav Aharon Friedman, shlit”a and Rav Gavriel Saraf, shlit”a, to the post of assistant roshei hayeshiva. At the start of the next school year, in August, they will become co-roshei hayeshiva. At that time, the current rosh hayeshiva, HaRav Mordechai Greenberg, shlit”a, will relinquish his administrative duties while continuing to teach the students of KBY, hopefully for many years to come.

Rav Friedman and Rav Saraf traveled to New York City to participate in the azkara program that was held on February 2 at Yeshiva University, in memory of KBY’s longtime director Mr. Eli Klein, and to meet with KBY alumni in the New York area.

As young students, Rav Saraf and Rav Friedman learned in the Hesder (military) program of KBY, and have served as ramim (lecturers in Talmud) at KBY since 2008.

Rav Saraf, age 44, was born in Be’er Sheva. After completing his service in the Israeli army’s Golani Brigade, he returned to KBY to continue his advanced Torah studies in its kollel program. After qualifying for rabbinic ordination and to serve as a judge (dayan) on a religious court, Rav Saraf served for two years as a halachic adviser to the Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Rav Friedman, age 42, was born in Jerusalem. He served in an artillery unit in the Israeli army and is currently a reserve battalion rabbi in the artillery corps. Rav Friedman returned to KBY to continue his advanced Talmudic studies. He also studied Tanach with Rav Yaakov Medan of Yeshivat Har Etzion and under Rav Yitzchak Shlomo Zylberman.

In addition to his daily Talmud lectures, Rav Friedman teaches Tanach to KBY students and a weekly class attended by over 80 local laymen. He is also known for the original essays and rabbinic commentaries he has published and his public lectures in southern Israeli towns near the KBY campus.

Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh was opened in 1954 by its founding rosh hayeshiva, Harav Chaim Goldvicht, of blessed memory, a few miles east of the port city of Ashdod. Rav Goldvicht and KBY initiated the Hesder yeshiva program in cooperation with the Israeli army in 1954. Today there are more than 60 Hesder yeshivot throughout Israel, with a total of over 8,500 student-soldiers. In addition to its Israeli students, KBY operates an overseas program for English-speaking college students from the U.S. and other countries around the world.

The office of American Friends of Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh can be contacted at (718) 645-3130 or [email protected].