Yitzhak Aharon Korff - Biography

Grand Rabbi Yitzhak Aharon Korff is the Rebbe of Zvhil – Mezhbizh. He serves as Chaplain of the City of Boston and spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Jacob, Zvhil–Mezhbizh Beis Medrash of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts, Miami,Florida, and Yerusalem,Israel. He is a dayan (judge of Jewish law) of the BaDaTz Boston Beth din (rabbinical court) and Vaad HaRabbonim (council of rabbis). He is also Consul General to the government of Austria and publisher of the Boston-based Jewish newspaper The Jewish Advocate.

Family

Rabbi Korff is a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the 18th century founder of the Hasidic movement, through the Baal Shem Tov’s grandson Rabbi Boruch of Medzhybizh, founder of the Mezhbizh Hasidic dynasty. Rabbi Korff also descended from numerous other Hasidic dynasties, including Zlotshev, Chernobyl, Apt, Yampol and Karlin, as well as Zvhil.

He is also a descendant of the Chabad chasidic dynasty through the Chabad Mitler Rebbe's daughter and son-in-law Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkass, son of Grand Rabbi Mordechai (Magid of Chernobyl).

His first wife, Shari Redstone whom he divorced, is the daughter of Sumner Redstone Chairman of the Board and controlling shareholder of the Viacom and CBS Corporation media conglomerates.

The Rebbe's second wife, the Rebbetzin, is a native of Jerusalem and a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov and the Hasidic dynasties of Zvhil, Zlotshev, and Tshernobl. She is the daughter of the Shomer Emunim Rebbe, Grand Rabbi Avrohom Chayim Roth of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, who is the son of Reb Arele. Her mother, the Shomrei Emunim Rebbetzin, Rabbi Korff's third cousin, is the daughter of the previous Zvhiler Rebbe of Jerusalem, Rabbi Mordechai.

Education

He was educated at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Yeshivas Beis Mordechai (Zvhil) of Jerusalem, and was tutored privately by masters of Hasidism and Kabbalah.

In addition, the Rebbe has a Ph.D., two law degrees, and several Masters degrees, from Columbia University, Harvard University, Boston University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and other institutions.

Rabbi Korff simultaneously combined careers as a rabbi, chaplain, lawyer, diplomat, businessman and entrepreneur, and subsequently also inherited his grandfather's position as a Hasidic Rebbe.

Works

Rabbi Korff is also the author of Meshivas Nefesh Yitzchok: Insights of a Contemporary Chassidic Master, published (2001) in the original Hebrew/Yiddish/Aramaic and in English translation.

See also

• Mezhbizh (Hasidic dynasty)
• Zhvil (Hasidic dynasty)

External links

• Zvhil-Mezbuz Beis Medrash

Sources

• Toldos Anshei Shem, Rand and Greenblat, New York, 1950
• Sefer Meshivas Nefesh Yitzhak, New York, 2000, 2001, second Revised Edition ISBN 0-9645367-1-4
• HaHasidut, Prof. Yizhak Alfasi, Jerusalem.