Chaim Dov Keller

Biography

Rabbi Keller was born in New York City and attended Yeshiva University. He subsequently attended the Telshe yeshiva after it was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1940 by Rabbis Chaim Mordechai Katz and Eliyahu Meir Bloch. Rabbi Keller became a student and disciple of Rabbi Bloch in particular.

Telshe yeshiva in Chicago and Agudath Israel of America

Rabbi Keller, together with Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin, were hand-picked by the leadership of the Telshe yeshiva in Cleveland to oversee the establishment of a similar yeshiva devoted to serious Talmudic studies in Chicago in 1960. The new institution was to carry the same name as its mother institution, hence the birth of Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago. The yeshiva is the main non-Hasidic Lithuanian (Misnagdish) yeshiva in Chicago. Rabbi Keller and his co-dean are regarded as the leading Agudath Israel-affiliated rabbis in Chicago, with Rabbi Levin serving as a full member of the national Agudah's top policy-making body, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah while Rabbi Keller is a member of the level below the Moetzes which on Agudah's Presidium (Nesius in Hebrew.)

Recognition by Agudath Israel

With the passage of time, and as a relatively significant number of alumni graduated from the Telshe yeshiva in Chicago, it added to the reputations of its founders in the world of (New York-based) Agudath Israel of America to which they belong. While Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin was elevated to a seat on the exclusive American Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ("Council of Torah Sages") of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Keller became a member of its "Nesius" ("Presidium"), a lesser yet still prestigious appointment. Thus at Agudath Israel's premier event, its annual convention, Rabbi Keller has frequently been one of the official rabbis and rosh yeshivas designated to give official speeches or lecture, such as at the: 77th Agudah convention in 1999 (symposium, "Drawing Lines, Drawing Near -- Securing The Future Of American Jewry"); 80th Agudah convention in 2002 (plenary session, "What in the World is Going On? -- Searching for Meaning in the Maelstrom"); 83rd Agudah convention in 2005 ("Shabbat speakers");

Publications

The following is a short list of subjects and articles to which Rabbi Keller has addressed his critiques:

Rabbi Keller has also written a widely published obituary on Rabbi Raphael Baruch Sorotzkin, Telshe rosh yeshiva