Avraham Eliezer Alperstein

Who was Avraham Eliezer Alperstein?

Rabbi Avraham Eliezer Alperstein was an Orthodox Rabbi, Rosh yeshiva, publisher, communal leader and exceptional Talmudic scholar. He published the first ever section of Talmud in the United States.

Studying under the Ridbaz and the Beis HaLevi in his youth and then in Vilna and Kovno, Rabbi Alperstein obtained an extraordinary knowledge of both the Talmud Bavli and the Talmud Yerushalmi. He received Semicha from Rabbi Mordechai Meltzer, and Rabbi Aryeh Leib Shachnovitz.

Upon gaining semicha, Rabbi Alperstein briefly served as rabbi of the Kamenitzer shul in Vilna before becoming rabbi of nearby Novogorod. A few years later he accepted a position as rabbi of the Zevach Tzedek shul in the vibrant Jewish community of Slabodka.

Rabbi Alperstein immigrated to the United States in 1881, becoming rabbi of Khal Adath Jeshurun in New York. In 1884, he went to Chicago to take another rabbinic pulpit, serving there for 15 years as rabbi of various shuls including Congregation Oheb Shalom Bnai Marienpol, Anshei Kovno, and the Suvalker shul. While in the city, he published his commentary to Tractate Bikkurim of the Jerusalem Talmud. The work boasted two notable approbations, one from the Beis HaLevi of Brisk and the other from Rabbi Jacob Joseph of New York. Moving in 1899 to St. Paul, Rabbi Alperstein returned to New York in 1901 to become rabbi of the Yagustava shul on Rutgers Street.