Rav Dr. Yaakov Jaffe (‘98) is the Rabbi of the Maimonides Minyan in Brookline, MA, and a faculty member of the Maimonides School. He received his doctorate and rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Jaffe also serves as the Menahel of the Boston Beis Din.

Rav Elyakim Krumbein (‘73) has been a ram at Yeshivat Har Etzion since 1981 and heads its Tochnit Bekiut.

Harav Mosheh Lichtenstein (‘78H) has been rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion since 2008.

Harav Yaakov Medan (‘68H) has been rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion since 2005.

Dr. David Neustadter (‘87), a biomedical engineer, lives in Nof Ayalon and is the Chief Technology Officer of Calore Medical Ltd.

Rav Dr. Aaron Ross (‘92) is the assistant principal in the Middle School at Yavneh Academy in Paramus, NJ. He is at the vanguard of Jewish Education’s foray into social media and integrating Project-Based Learning into Jewish Education. R. Dr. Ross holds an Ed.D. from Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School, semikha from RIETS, an M.A. in Rabbinic Literature from NYU, and a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rav Avihud Shwartz (‘02H) is an officer and rabbi in the IDF Military Rabbinate and head of its Halakhic Policy Division. He learned in Yeshiva from 2002 to 2013, including an extended stint in the Kollel Gavoa, and received his semikha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He also holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in education from Herzog College. Since 2011 he has delivered the Daf Yomi shiur in the Yeshiva.

Rav Joe Wolfson (‘04) studied at the yeshiva from 2004 until 2015 with a couple of breaks in-between for degrees in political philosophy at Cambridge and UCL. Since completing the semikha of Chief Rabbinate of Israel in 2015, he has served as the Rabbi and Director of the OU’s Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at New York University.

Rav Dr. Ari Zivotofsky (‘80) is a professor of neuroscience at Bar Ilan University.

Rav Reuven Ziegler, Editor

Rav Yonatan Shai Freedman, Meira Mintz, Asst. Editors

Aminadav Grossman, Rav Daniel Landman, Ed. Staff

When residents of Gush Etzion were forced in 1948 to abandon the area, they gazed from afar at the remaining oak tree as a symbol of faith and hope for the future. Yeshivat Har Etzion and Alon Shevut, the settlement which grew around it (literally, the Oak of Return), continue to draw inspiration from this steadfast tree. Like the tree, which stands firmly rooted while the wind carries its leaves in all directions, the Yeshiva flourishes within while spreading Torah without. The name Alei Etzion (Leaves of Etzion) symbolizes our commitment to the development of Torah scholarship, and to its dissemination throughout the Jewish world.

Cover: Photograph, Boris Smertenko

Design, Mountain High Productions, 02-993-4554

The editorial board welcomes comments and original articles for inclusion in the next issue of Alei Etzion.

Alon Shevut 9043300

Gush Etzion, ISRAEL

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