Aryeh Klapper

Aryeh (Robert David) Klapper is a leading American rabbi and Jewish thinker who serves as dean of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership.
He is Senior Dayan of the Boston Beit Din, co-founder of the Boston Agunah Taskforce, and Rosh Kollel of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership's student fellowship program, the Summer Beit Midrash. Klapper is known for his lectures, published academic and religious articles, and leadership in the Orthodox world. He was listed as one of Tablet Magazine's "Rabbis You Should Know" in 2014.

Klapper previously served as rabbi of Brandeis Hillel, Talmud Curriculum Chair of Maimonides High School, Orthodox Adviser and Associate Director for Education at Harvard Hillel, Instructor of Rabbinics and Medical Ethics at Gann Academy, and interim rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon.

He launched a podcast, ''Taking Responsibility for Torah'', in 2021.

Early life and education

Klapper is the son of Molly Roxana Klapper, author of ''The German Literary Influence on Byron'' (1974) and editor of ''Definitive Creative Impasse-Breaking Techniques In Mediation'' (2011), and Jacob Klapper, former chair of the electrical and computer engineering department at NJIT and co-author of ''Phase-Locked and Frequency-Feedback Systems'' (1972)."Klapper, Jacob." ''American Men & Women of Science'': ''A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences'', edited by Katherine H. Nemeh, et al., 22nd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2005, p. 384. He has one sister, named Rachele Hannah. Klapper placed second in the 1980 National Spelling Bee after qualifying through the All-Yeshiva Spelldown. The New York Daily News described him as a "spelling star" who had "a vast mental storehouse of words."

Klapper attended Manhattan Day School, graduated from Yeshiva University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science, and received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and a master's degree in Bible from the Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies in 1994.

While at YU, Klapper served as editor-in-chief of ''Hamevaser'' newspaper, editor-in-chief of ''Gesher'' journal, president of the English Honors Society, and co-chair of the Committee to Preserve Revel.

He is married to Deborah Klapper, and has four children and one grandchild.

Career

Klapper taught at several east-coast universities before joining Harvard Hillel in 2002, where he taught a faculty Talmud class, built the Cambridge eruv, and met his future wife, a Harvard student who served as minyan gabbai.Schoenberg, Shira. "Klapper to leave Harvard Hillel." ''Jewish Advocate'' oston, MA 3 June 2005 He became known for his intellectual scholarship and his generosity in inviting guests for Shabbat meals. In 1997, he launched his Summer Beit Midrash program, a co-educational summer kollel. He taught at Maimonides High School from 1994 to 2003, eventually serving as Talmud Curriculum Chair, and at Gann Academy from 2005 to 2014. He is a leading Orthodox opponent of torture and sexual abuse.

Summer Beit Midrash

Klapper first launched the Summer Beit Midrash in 1997 as a six-week all-male kollel geared toward understanding the process of deciding halakha. 15-20 fellows are selected each year to participate. In 2004, after being overwhelmed with applications from women and unable to fund a second program, Klapper made the program co-ed, saying "Psak is largely a function of people asking questions. If someone knows their stuff, others will ask them. We live in a time where I expect women to exercise leadership in the halakhic community." Students study daily, from morning prayers until late at night, and spend the final week writing an amateur responsum in response to that summer's designated question. Each summer's fellows give lectures at synagogues around New England and learn b'chavrusa with community members. In 2009, the program relocated to the Young Israel of Sharon, Massachusetts.

Center for Modern Torah Leadership

In 2004, Klapper left Harvard Hillel to launch the Center for Modern Torah Leadership, which is a registered non-profit which describes itself as "the intellectual catalyst of Modern Orthodoxy" and aims "to make halakhah the shared spiritual language of the Jewish community, and to make Jewish discourse an essential contributor to the moral conversation of humanity." The center took over the annual Summer Beit Midrash fellowship program and launched the Winter Beit Midrash, an shorter three-day program for students during winter break, and Midreshet Avigayl, a high-level Talmud program for teenage girls. The center also holds national conferences on halakha for select groups of Orthodox rabbis and educators. In 2014, Klapper left Gann Academy to run the Center for Modern Torah Leadership full-time. The center published the first volume of its halakhic journal, ''Responsibility Inscribed'', in 2015.

Lectures

In his lectures, Klapper "relates Jewish tradition substantively to labor laws, human rights, torture, and many other contemporary public policy issues." He has given "countless shiurim focusing mostly on issues of Jewish law."

2017 Yeshiva University lecture controversy

Klapper gives regular student lectures at Yeshiva University.

Invited by the Student Organization of the Yeshiva, Klapper was scheduled to give a lecture there on March 29, 2017. Posters advertising the lecture were placed around the school. On the morning of the 29th, "at least two students witnessed Herschel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University">Hershel_Schachter.html" ;"title="abbi Herschel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Universitytake down the signs on the left-hand door to the Glueck Beth midrash">beit midrash.

He then crumpled the posters into a ball and tossed them into a nearby garbage can." Schachter told the ''Yeshiva University Commentator'' that he had taken down the signs because “The guy's an ''apikores''. He shouldn’t be invited here. You can quote me on that if you want. He doesn’t belong here at all.” Dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary">RIETS