Baruch Alter HaCohen Taub ( he, ברוך אלתר הכהן טאוב) is the founding rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus of the

Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (), also known as the BAYT, is a synagogue in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Ontario, and is one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in North America. It attracts Jews from a variety of religious backgrounds with ...

Congregation (BAYT), the largest

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

congregation in Canada. He also served as the de facto chief rabbi of

Vaughan Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, and is the former National Director of

NCSY NCSY (formerly known as the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) is a Jewish youth group under the auspices of the Orthodox Union. Its operations include Jewish-inspired after-school programs; summer programs in Israel, Europe, and the United ...

. He currently lives in Netanya, Israel.

Biography

Rabbi Taub received his

rabbinic ordination Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 C ...

from Yeshivas Ner Yisroel of Baltimore, MD. He holds a master's degree from Loyola College of Maryland and a Doctorate of Philosophy from the Maimonides College of Ontario. He became National Director of NCSY in 1976, following the departure of Rabbi

Pinchas Stolper Pinchas Aryeh Stolper (October 22, 1931 – May 25, 2022) was an American Orthodox rabbi and writer, who was a spokesman for Jewish Orthodoxy through his writings and books popularizing Orthodox Judaism. Biography Stolper was a disciple of Rabbi ...

to become Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union. He served in this post until 1980, when he left to become the spiritual leader of the BAYT Congregation. His selection as founding rabbi of the BAYT Congregation came about through his introduction to Canadian philanthropist Joseph Tannenbaum by Rabbi

Nota Schiller Nota Schiller ( he, נטע שילר, born 1937) is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem. He is an influential figure in the baal teshuva movement, having guided generations of students with little or no Je ...

of Yeshivat Ohr Somayach. Tannenbaum was interested in starting a synagogue in northern Toronto, and Schiller introduced him to the dynamic Ner Yisroel graduate then living in New York with his wife and five children. Rabbi Taub started the BAYT Congregation in his living room with 13 families in 1980, and continued shepherding it as the sole rabbi. By the time of his retirement in 2010, the congregation had grown to 600 to 700 families, making it the largest Orthodox congregation in Canada. Rabbi Taub is a noted speaker on

Orthodox Jewish outreach Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as ''Kiruv'' or ''Qiruv'' ( he, קירוב "bringing close"), is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life accord ...

and the teshuva movement. He delivered the keynote speech to the 1996 AJOP Convention on the subject "The Teshuvah Movement: The next generation". During his tenure as Rabbi of BAYT, he spoke at Israel solidarity rallies and led his congregation on annual solidarity missions to Israel. He led the 11th

Siyum HaShas Siyum HaShas ( he, סיום הש"ס, lit. "completion of the Six Orders f the Talmud) is a celebration of the completion of the Daf Yomi (daily Talmud folio) program, a roughly seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning the Oral Torah and its comme ...

at Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin in Lublin,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Personal

Rabbi Taub's first wife, Judy Blustein, died in October 2001. A guidance centre was dedicated in her memory in the Beit El Israeli settlement in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

– BAYT's twin city – in November 2002. Rabbi Taub and his second wife, Malkah, made aliyah to Netanya, Israel, in December 2010. His son Moshe was the rabbi of Young Israel of Greater Buffalo since September 2003 and is the supervising rabbi of the

Vaad ::For the ''Va'adat Ezrah Vehatzalah'', known as the ''Vaad'', see Aid and Rescue Committee Vaad is a Hebrew term for a council. Often it refers to a council of rabbis, i.e., a rabbinical council. It is a diasporic phenomenon, having no precedent ...

Hakashrut (Kosher-Supervising Board) of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, as well as the rabbinic editor & weekly contributor for

Ami Magazine ''Ami Magazine'' ( he, עמי, "My people") is an international news magazine that caters to the Orthodox Jewish community. It is published weekly in New York and Israel. The magazine was launched in November 2010 by Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter ( ...

. He is now the Rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood. Another son, Shimon, is a Torah scholar and author of ''The Laws of Tzedakah and Maaser: A comprehensive guide'', published by ArtScroll.

Selected bibliography

*
Preface
to Kaplan, Aryeh. ''The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology: Illuminating expositions on Jewish thought and practice by a revered teacher''. Mesorah Publications Ltd., 1991, pp. 15–16. .
"Parashat Balak"
in ''Torah insights: Divrei Torah on the Parshiot Hashavua by leading rabbis and teachers'', Bertram Leff and Yisrael Epstein, eds. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, 2000, pp. 245–246. . * ''Gedola HaTeshuva'' (Hebrew) * ''And The Dove Found Rest: Essays on the weekly Torah Portion Volume 1'', 2017 * ''And The Dove Found Rest: Essays on the weekly Torah Portion Volume 2'', 2018 * ''Kanfei Yona: Essays on the weekly Torah Portion'' (Hebrew), 2021.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taub, Baruch Canadian Orthodox rabbis 20th-century Canadian rabbis 21st-century Canadian rabbis Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Rabbis from Toronto