Historic Meeting Between Chief Bukharian Rabbi Yitzchak Yisraeli And The CRC

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Our Bukharian community has been in the United States for approximately 50 years, with the second wave of immigration arriving in the 1990’s. While our financial achievements have thank G-d been on the rise with so many professionals bearing their Bukharian names with pride, the challenges our community is facing is also climbing at an alarming rate, with drugs and crime plaguing so many of our youth. 

From a religious perspective, while our community has many great outreach organizations and institutions inspiring thousands throughout the year, assimilation and a loss of Jewish identity has unfortunately also been rampant.

Finding the right balance in assisting all segments of the Bukharian community has been the number one priority for Rav Yitzchak Yisraeli since being appointed Chief Rabbi of Bukharian Jewry in the USA and Canada over three years ago.

His mission is to give halachic guidance to the most difficult questions that come to him via the Rabbis of the community, having dealt with dozens of complicated cases that only a true Torah scholar of his magnitude can solve.

At the same time, Rav Yisraeli is trying to build the community from a basic level as well, which is to raise the spiritual level of the majority of Bukharian Jews who are are not well informed of their beautiful traditions. In doing so, he works hand in hand with leading institutions and organizations to help raise the bar of religious observance amongst people of all walks of life.

All this is being done while the Chief Rabbi is also working on personal goals. He is known as a prolific author on Jewish law. His most recent book is a 600 page halachic masterpiece discussing 12 topics including many medical and monetary matters in light of Jewish law.

A new shipment of the Chief Rabbi’s latest publication recently arrived to the states. In it, he has halachic discussions with leading Torah scholars of our generation where he disects every angle of each case prior to arriving to his final conclusion.

At a recent lecture, Rav David Yosef, son of the late Rav Ovadia Yosef stated that Rav Yitzchak Yisraeli “is a great genius, a great Torah Scholar. When you see his books, you see he is working very hard, learning very deep. He is a real Torah scholar and a real Dayyan (Rabbinical Judge).” He went on to praise the community for having a Chief Rabbi of his caliber. 

This past week, Rav Yisraeli held a long and private meeting with the CRC, the Central Rabbinical Congress of USA and Canada.

The CRC was founded in the aftermath of World War II, when thousands of Jewish survivors arrived in the United States and began the process of rebuilding communities which were decimated in the Holocaust. Their  stated goal was to serve as an umbrella organization to unite the Chassidic communities in North America with all their religious and communal needs.

Throughout the years the organization grew exponentially, and quickly turned into one of the most recognized rabbinical organizations, currently having hundreds of communal Rabbis as members representing hundreds of thousands of people throughout the USA and Canada.

The meeting between the Chief Bukharian Rabbi and the leading rabbinical figures of the CRC included their Av Beth Din Rav Menachem Zilber, The Galanter Rav and Rav Herfenes. It was a very productive gathering as these great minds joined together to discuss numerous halachic topics that needed immediate attention, from matters pertaining to marriage, divorce, conversion and verification of family lineage. Everyone in attendance were extremely impressed with Rav Yisraeli’s expertise in all areas of Jewish law as he cited sources and Talmudic reasonings verbatim without any prior preparation. The meeting concluded with both sides looking to work together in solving many other community matters that are in need of assistance in the future.