Baruch Ben Haim
| Hakham Baruch Ben Haim | |
|---|---|
| Position | Chief Rabbi |
| Organisation | Brooklyn Syrian Jewish community |
| Began | 1950 |
| Ended | 2005 |
| Other | Founder, Shaare Zion Torah Center |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Baruch Mizrahi |
| Born | November 18, 1921 Jerusalem |
| Died | June 2, 2005 (aged 83) Brooklyn, New York |
| Buried | Har HaMenuchot |
| Parents | Haim Mizrahi Miriam Shalom |
| Spouse | Charlotte Kassin |
| Children | Eli Yaacov Yehuda David |
| Alma mater | Porat Yosef Yeshiva |
| Semicha | Rabbi Ezra Attiya Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel |
Baruch Ben Haim (Hebrew: ברוך בן חיים, November 18, 1921 – June 2, 2005) was a Sephardi Hakham who served as Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York for 55 years. He taught at Magen David Yeshiva and established the Shaare Zion Torah Center at Congregation Shaare Zion. He was a protege of Rabbi Ezra Attiya, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva, who trained and dispatched students to leadership positions in Sephardi communities around the world.
Ben Haim was born in Jerusalem in 1921. He was one of nine children of Haim Mizrahi and Miriam Shalom, both natives of Iraq. The family changed its surname from Mizrahi to Ben Haim ("son of Haim") after Haim Mizrahi's death in 1951 to honor their patriarch.
At age 11 Ben Haim entered Porat Yosef Yeshiva, where he was a member of the so-called "wonder class" of students who went on to become noted Torah scholars and leaders in the Sephardi Jewish world. His classmates included Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul, Rabbi Yehuda Moallem, Rabbi Zion Levy, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Ben Haim was especially close to Yosef, who was his chavruta (study partner) from a young age and with whom he spent up to 15 hours a day engaged in Torah study.
Ben Haim received rabbinic ordination from his rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Ezra Attiya, and from the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel. For a while he served as a dayan (rabbinical court judge) on the Sephardi Beit Din in Jerusalem, together with Rabbis Attiya and Yehuda Shako. In 1947 he accepted a rabbinical position in an Ashkenazi community in South Africa, which he served for two years.
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