Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman

Who was Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman?

Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman was a prominent Talmudic scholar and rabbi who founded and served as rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Ner Yisroel in Baltimore.

He was born in Daŭhinava, Russia, where his father, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ruderman, was the rabbi. He studied in Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael in Slabodke, under the "Alter", Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, receiving semicha from the latter in 1926.

Among Rabbi Ruderman's distinguished colleagues in Slobodka were his second cousin Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, and Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner.