Yitzchok Zilber - Life in Israel

Life in Israel

When he arrived in Israel, Rabbi Zilber was shocked to find that the vast majority of Russian-speaking Jews were not observant and for the most part, completely ignorant, of Jewish law and tradition. He undertook to change this situation, and began teaching extensively throughout the country as well as organizing circumcisions, since the Israeli rabbinate was not as yet prepared for such a large number of immigrants who needed to have a circumcision performed. Rabbi Zilber invested many efforts in helping Russian women receive gittin (bills of divorce) after being abandoned by their husbands, making endless efforts and using equisite inventiveness and tricks to find lost husbands,and to convince them to agree for a divorce. He was available to everyone who came to seek his advice, which led to his fame in certain circles as "the father of Russian Jewry." Rabbi Zilber taught in Russian organizations such as Dvar Yerushalayim, Torat Haim, the Russian division of Ohr Somayach, Shuvu, and Shvut Ami.

In 2000, he established the Toldos Yeshurun organization to provide Jewish education to the secular Russian Jews, which continues his work today, under the guidance of his only son, Rabbi Ben Tzion Zilber.

Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber died in 2003, on the eve of Tisha b'Av (the Ninth of Av), the greatest day of tragedy in Jewish history.