Yisroel Belsky Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Belsky was re-hospitalized in January 2016 and he died during the evening of January 28, 2016, which corresponded to the Hebrew calendar date of 19 Shevat.

Belsky resided in Brooklyn. In 2012, he suffered a serious medical emergency. At that time, the name Chaim was added to his name. After his recovery, he returned to Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. In 2013, the annual Yeshiva dinner honored Belsky and highlighted 50 young men who earned semikhah from him.

In a 2011 interview with The New York Times about a divorce case, Belsky described a court-ordered child custody order as “a joke” since it interfered with observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

Belsky served as rabbi of the summer camp network run by Agudath Israel of America. In September 2005, he was the keynote speaker at the Igud Horabbonim Annual Siyum HaShas. The event doubled as the chag ha’semikhah, where 35 of Belsky’s students received their rabbinical ordination certificates.

In 2000, Belsky sided against rabbis in Borough Park, Brooklyn who established a controversial eruv, referring to them as amateurs and populists.

Belsky’s first kashrut position was with the Kof-K. In 1987, he transferred to the Orthodox Union (OU), eventually being described as one of their “chief experts”, and ultimately served in that capacity for more than 28 years. In 2004, Belsky ruled that water that might contain microscopic nonkosher organisms is kosher even if it is unfiltered. That same year, he ruled that “gruesome” slaughtering of animals at Agriprocessors, then the largest glatt kosher meat producer in the United States, appeared not to violate kosher laws as long as the animal “felt nothing”. He later ruled on a kashrut scandal surrounding Doheny Meats, which had been videoed violating the laws of kashrut, saying that food that had been sold by Doheny prior to the scandal could still be considered kosher.

In 1962, Belsky received his semikhah (rabbinical ordination) from Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, and again in 1965, when he received it from Moshe Feinstein. Beginning at age 17, he studied at Beth Medrash Elyon in Monsey, New York under Yaakov Kamenetsky. Belsky would later go on to lead Torah Vodaas himself as its rosh yeshiva (dean).

Chaim Yisroel HaLevi Belsky (August 22, 1938 – January 28, 2016) was an American rabbi and posek of Orthodox and Haredi Judaism. He was one of the roshei yeshiva (deans) at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, and rabbi of the summer camp network run by Agudath Israel of America.