ARN-RUVN (ZEYDL) TSHARNI

ARN-RUVN (ZEYDL) TSHARNI (May 14, 1888-1970)

            He was born in Skale (Skała), Lomzhe district, Poland, into a rabbinical family.  He studied in religious elementary school and in the yeshivas of Braynsk (Brańsk), Volozhin, and Slobodka, and he received ordination into the rabbinate.  Until 1919 he was headmaster of the Suwalk yeshiva, after which he departed for England where he served as rabbi in the Orthodox communities of London and Birmingham.  In 1921 he moved to the United States.  He was rabbi in Revere, Massachusetts.  From 1924 he was rabbi of the Beth Abraham synagogue in Bayonne, New Jersey.  He was active in Agudat Harabanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis) and in Mizrachi, as well as other organizations.  He published articles—in both Yiddish and Hebrew—in the Orthodox and Mizrachi press in America.  He was the author of Hebrew-language religious works: Ratsuf ahava (Imbued with love) (New York, 1939), 297 pp.; and Melamed zakhut (Rightful teacher) (New York, 1953), three volumes, 350 pp.  In Yiddish: Derashot mehaḥayim vehateva, Populere droshes fun leben un natur (Popular sermons on life and nature) (New York, 1932), 294 pp.; Ḥezyonot hasaba, ilustrirte droshes un lektshurs (Visions of the sages, illustrated sermons and lectures) (New York, 1935), 266 pp.

Sources: M. Dantsis, in Tog (New York) (December 2, 1932); Ben-Tsiyon Ayzenshadt, Dorot haaḥaronim (Generation of the later ones) (New York, 1937), p. 92; A. Hefterman, in Hapardes (New York) (Sivan [= June-July] 1954); Sh. K., in Hamaor (New York) (Kislev [= April-May] 1957); Y. Perlson, in Yizker-bukh suvalk (Remembrance volume for Suwalk) (New York, 1961); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955), p. 14.

Khayim Leyb Fuks