Benjamin Blech

Rabbi Benjamin Blech
File:Rabbi Benjamin Blech.jpg
Position	Rabbi Emeritus
Synagogue	Young Israel of Oceanside
Position	Professor of Talmud
Yeshiva	Yeshiva University
Personal details
Born	1933 Zurich, Switzerland
Nationality	American
Denomination	Orthodox
Residence	New York, United States
Parents	Rabbi Benzion and Mrs. Gittel Blech
Spouse	Elaine
Profession	Rabbi, Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, Author, Speaker
Alma mater	Yeshiva University, Columbia University
Semicha	RIETS

Benjamin Blech, born in Zurich in 1933, is an Orthodox rabbi who now lives in New York City.

Rabbi Blech has been a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966, and was the Rabbi of Young Israel of Oceanside for 37 years. In addition to his work in the rabbinate, Rabbi Blech has written many books on Judaism and the Jewish people and speaks on Jewish topics to communities around the world.

Education

Rabbi Blech received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yeshiva University, a Master of Arts degree in psychology from Columbia University, and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Milestones

Rabbi Blech is the author of twelve highly acclaimed and best selling books, with combined sales of close to half a million copies, including three as part of the highly popular Idiot’s Guide series. His book Understanding Judaism: The Basics of Deed and Creed was chosen by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations as “the single best book on Judaism in our generation”. Together with an accompanying six-hour video, filmed by the producers of 20/20, featuring Rabbi Blech, it is used as the basis for study groups in numerous synagogues and universities around the country.

In the 1980s, Blech was asked by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to travel to the Far East on a speaking tour. Rabbi Schneerson paid for all Blech's travel and hotel expenses for the duration of his trip.

Rabbi Blech at one point invested $50,000 in the stock market and, over a number of years turned it into $7 million, before losing almost all of it. The experience was the catalyst for his 2003 book titled Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life’s Financial Ups and Downs.

In 2010 he was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis and given six months to live. In what Rabbi Blech considers a gift from God, he survived.

Relationship with the Vatican

In January 2005, Rabbi Blech, along with Rabbis Barry Dov Schwartz and Jack Bemporad, became the first rabbis in history known to confer a blessing on a Pope, when they were invited by the Vatican to visit and bless Pope John Paul II at Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace.

External links

• Deutsch, Claudia H. "AT LUNCH WITH: Rabbi Benjamin Blech", The New York Times, 7 December 2003.
• My Encounter with the Pope, May 15, 2009

See also

• List of Orthodox Rabbis
• References