Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld

Zvi Aryeh Benzion Rosenfeld (1922 – 11 December 1978) was an American rabbi and educator credited with introducing Breslov Hasidism to the United States.

[1][2][6] Four years later, he received semicha from Rabbi Avraham Sternhartz, leader of the Breslov Hasidim in Jerusalem, who tested him on his knowledge of Talmud, Midrash, Shulchan Aruch, Zohar, and Kabbalah.

He prepared boys for their bar mitzvahs; among his students were the two sons of Rabbi Yechezkel Kahana, the Talmud Torah principal: Meir and Nachman.

[5] Imbued with a sense of purpose, Rosenfeld moved his family to the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, which then had a largely non-religious Jewish community, and continued teaching at the Talmud Torah of the Shaarei Tefillah synagogue run by Rabbi Kahana for 15 years.

[9] Dozens of boys transferred from public school to yeshiva, and Rosenfeld arranged for children to attend religious summer camps.

[2][7] Rosenfeld also taught Sephardic students at the Magen David day school in Bensonhurst, and gave classes at the two main synagogues for the Syrian Jewish community, Shaarei Tzion and Achiezer.

He tapped Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan to do the translation and he edited the finished work, which was published under the title Rebbe Nachman's Wisdom.

[2][8] Since the end of World War II, the grave of Rebbe Nachman, in the city of Uman, Ukraine, had been an impossible to reach goal for Breslovers living outside the Soviet Union.

[2] With the help of a travel agent who had connections to Soviet chairman Nikita Khrushchev, Rosenfeld led the first official group of American Breslovers to Uman in December 1963.