Yaakov Bleich

Yaakov Bleich

Yaakov Dov Bleich (born 1964) is an American-born rabbi and member of the Karlin-Stoliner Chassidic group. He has been widely recognized as Chief Rabbi of Kiev and all of Ukraine since 1990 and has served as vice-president of the World Jewish Congress since 2009.

He graduated from Telshe Yeshiva High School in Chicago, Illinois where he began his rabbinical studies. From 1984-1986, he studied at the Karlin Stolin Rabbinical Institute in Jerusalem, and received his Rabbinical ordination (semicha) at Yeshiva Karlin Stolin in Brooklyn.

In 1990, Bleich was appointed Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine. Since his arrival in Ukraine, Bleich has been instrumental in founding the Kyiv Jewish City Community, the Union Of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, the first Jewish day school in Ukraine, the first Jewish orphanage and boarding school in Ukraine, the Chesed Avot welfare society of Kyiv, the Magen Avot social services network of Ukraine, and a host of other organizations.

He is currently one of three contenders for the role of chief rabbi, alongside Chabad Lubavitch appointees Azriel Haikin (appointed 2002) and Moshe Reuven Azman (appointed 2005). There is also a Progressive (Liberal/Reform) Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine, Alexander Dukhovny.

In 2008, Kievan weekly magazine Focus named Bleich among the most "powerful foreigners" in the country.