Yaakov Perlow

Family background

Yaakov Perlow was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rabbi Nochum Mordechai Perlow (1887-1976), the Novominsker Rebbe, and his wife, Beila Rochma Morgenstern. He was named after his great-grandfather, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the first Novominsker Rebbe. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern (1864-1939), the Sokolover Rebbe, a direct descendant of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Morgernstern was one of the main founders of Agudath Israel in Poland.

Education and career

Perlow began his Torah education at Yeshiva Toras Chaim in East New York, and continued on to the Lithuanian-type yeshivas of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn and Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. He also graduated with honors from Brooklyn College.

He subsequently taught at Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois. From there, he was appointed rosh yeshiva at the Breuer's yeshiva, Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, in Washington Heights, New York, and established a synagogue continuing the Novominsker Hasidic movement. In 1981 he resigned his position at the Breuer's yeshiva to establish and devote himself to his own yeshiva, Yeshivas Novominsk Kol Yehuda, in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Agudath Israel of America

In December 1998 Perlow was named president of the Agudath Israel of America organization, succeeding Rabbi Moshe Sherer, who had died seven months earlier. With his appointment, the presidential and leadership duties held by Sherer were divided between Perlow, the new president, and a three-man executive. Perlow is also a member of the organization's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages).

Perlow frequently speaks out on issues affecting the American Orthodox Jewish world, including Internet usage, child abuse, Holocaust denial, overpriced Jewish weddings, and even U.S. politics. In 2015 Perlow shocked attendees at the 93rd annual Agudath Israel of America dinner by directly appealing to President Obama to reconsider the Iran deal.

Unafraid to state his position, he is seen as a controversial figure by some non-Orthodox Jewish groups in light of his comments about heterodox Jewish movements. While he consistently calls for increased dialogue and rapprochement with non-Orthodox Jews, he couples that with condemnation of the non-Orthodox movements themselves. For example, at the 73rd annual Agudah convention in 1995, he urged dialogue with non-Orthodox Jews while at the same time "lashing out at what he described as the 'false ideology' of non-Orthodox Judaism". In June 1999 he wrote in The Jewish Observer that it was time for a rapprochement in the long-standing feud between the Haredi and Reform movements. At the May 2014 Agudath dinner, he stated that the Reform and Conservative movements "have disintegrated themselves, become oblivious, fallen into an abyss of intermarriage and assimilation. They will be relegated to the dustbins of Jewish history". He followed that assessment by branding another movement, Open Orthodoxy, as being "steeped in apikorsos" (heresy). While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was the next speaker at the dinner, he did not challenge Perlow's remarks, which cast aspersions on the affiliations of the non-Orthodox Jewish population of New York City.

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