Mordechai Willig
| Rabbi Mordechai Willig | |
|---|---|
| File:Rmwillig.JPG | |
| Position | Rabbi |
| Synagogue | Young Israel of Riverdale |
| Position | Rosh Yeshiva |
| Yeshiva | RIETS |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 25, 1947 New York |
| Nationality |  United States of America |
| Denomination | Orthodox |
| Residence | Riverdale, New York |
| Semicha | RIETS |
Mordechai Willig (born April 25, 1947) is an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, Manhattan. He is often known to his students as the Ramu (רמ"ו), which is the transliteration of the acronym of the Hebrew letters Reish, Mem, and Vav, which spell out the first letters of Rav Willig's name (Rabbi Mordechai Willig = רב מרדכי וויליג).
Contents
Education
Born in New York, Willig received a B.A. in mathematics in 1968 from Yeshiva College and an M.S. in Jewish history in 1971 from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He was a student of the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Professional Life
In 1973, Willig was appointed as rosh yeshiva at the Mazer School of Talmudic studies at Yeshiva University and holds that position, along with the position of rosh kollel at RIETS. His formal title is the Rabbi Dr. Sol Roth Professor of Talmud and Contemporary Halachah.
Willig has been the rabbi and spiritual leader at the Young Israel of Riverdale Synagogue, in Riverdale, The Bronx, New York, since 1974.
During the summer, Rav Willig is the Rosh Kollel of the college Morasha Kollel.
Willig is also the deputy av beis din of the Beth Din of America, the court of the Rabbinical Council of America. He co-authored the Rabbinical Council of America's prenuptial agreement.[1] with Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg.
Books
Willig is the author of a sefer entitled Am Mordechai, which came out in three volumes (1992 on Brachot, 2005 on Shabbat and 2010 on Seder Moed).
Lanner case
In 1989, Rabbi Willig led a Bet Din that heard allegations of abuse by Rabbi Baruch Lanner.[2] The Bet Din found Lanner guilty of three charges and found three other charges to be unsubstantiated.[3] The Bet Din read their determination to the litigants, to the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, and to Lanner's two employers, the Orthodox Union and a synagogue in New Milford, New Jersey.[3]
On February 19, 2003, Rabbi Willig publicly apologized for reaching what he eventually realized to be incorrect conclusions and for other "mistakes" made during the 1989 Bet Din proceedings. He noted that since the Bet Din did not have experience adjudicating matters of abuse, they should not have agreed to take the case.[3][4] Families of the victims felt Willig's apology did not go far enough in stating that abuse should be reported "only at times" to secular authorities.[5] His apology came 13 years after the fact and only after an expose by the Jewish Week.[6] A report prepared in 2000 by a special commission appointed to investigate the Orthodox Union and Rabbi Willig's Bet Din role in the Lanner case cited the failure of taking action and allowing Lanner's abuse to "continue unchecked for many years."[7] Families of the victims felt Willig's apology did not go far enough in stating that abuse should be reported "only at times" to secular authorities.[8][9]
Family
Rabbi Willig resides with his wife in Riverdale, New York, New York. They have nine children and 40 grandchildren. Four of his children live in Israel, teaching at various Yeshivos, among them Yeshivat Torat Shraga in Jerusalem and Yeshivat Reishit Yerushalayim in Beit Shemesh.
He is the first cousin of Rabbi Avi Weiss, who heads the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and is the dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Rabbis Weiss and Willig are both part of the Vaad of Riverdale, in addition to Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt.
References
- ↑ Rabbinical Council of America, May 30, 2006: "RCA Reaffirms its Commitment to Preventing Agunah Tragedies". Retrieved 4/3/2012
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