Chaim Yitzchak Bloch Hacohen

Hayyim Yitzhak HaCohen Bloch
Born	Hayyim Yitzhak Bloch September 14, 1865 Plungė, Lithuania
Died	February 17, 1948 Jersey City, New Jersey
Resting place	Riverside Cemetery, Saddle Brook, NJ
Occupation	Rabbi, Scholar, Community Activist
Language	Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian
Nationality	Lithuanian, American
Ethnicity	Jewish
Citizenship	United States
Education	Yeshivas Grubin (Kelm), Yeshivas Volozhin
Genre	Talmudics, Jewish Thought, Jewish Law
Notable awards	Honorary President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada
Spouse	Gitte Sarah Meshulami
Children	Abraham, Max, Leo, Benjamin, Jona Sheftel ("Sam"), Elias, Ruth, Shaina Henna

Hayyim Yitzhak HaCohen Bloch (Hebrew: חיים יצחק בלוך הכהן‎‎; 1865-1948) was a prominent Lithuanian born rabbi. In 1922 he left Latvia for the United States, where he became the Rabbi and Av Beit Din (head judge of religious court) of Jersey City, New Jersey. He remained there until his death in 1948.

Bloch was born in Plungė, Lithuania, on September 14, 1865 to an illustrious rabbinic family with family roots traced back to the Shakh and Shelah Hakadosh. Until the age of 15, Bloch was taught Torah by his father, Rabbi Hanoch Zundel Hacohen, the local shochet of the town. After his 15th birthday, Bloch left Plunge to study Torah by Rav Simha Zissel in Yeshivat Grobin. Unique in its time, the Yeshivah at Grobin had a dual curriculum of Jewish and Secular studies. Under the guidance of Rav Simcha Zissel, the young teenager grew very diligent in his Torah study and rose to an advanced level in Talmud. Rav Simcha Zissel heavily emphasized the study of Mussar, which had a profound impact on young Bloch's personality for the rest of his life.

At the age of 18, Hayyim Bloch decided to leave Grobin and learn instead in the famed Volozhin Yeshiva under the illustrious Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik, the founder of the "Brisker Derech", and Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin-the "Neziv". Rabbi Solovietchik had a deep love and admiration for his young disciple, and Bloch studied under him for seven years. In 1890, at the age of 25, Bloch was granted semikha by his teacher, Rabbi Hayyim Solovietchik, as well as by the Telzer Rosh Yeshiva, Harav Eliezer Gordon. While in Volozhin, Bloch devoted much of his time to a study of the Ritba's commentary on the Talmud. For Bloch, the Ritba became his "master and teacher" in Talmud, and he was almost able to render his commentary on the Talmud by heart. As a yeshivah student, Bloch wrote for the Slutzk journal, Yagdil Torah, as well as Migdal Torah, another Talmudic based periodical. Although Bloch spent most of his time in Volozhin immersed in the intellectually stimulating world of conceptual talmudic study, he also (like many students in Volozhin at this time ) explored other areas of thought, most notably the Haskala. While in Volozhin, Bloch began writing for the Warsaw pro-Zionist pro Haskala daily, Ha-Zefirah, and in 1887 at the age of 22, became editor of the column Wisdom of Israel.

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