Chicago Pesach Kinus Torah 

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For more than 50 years in a row, Torah scholars and yeshivah students from across the Windy City gathered for the annual Kinus Torah, at which Rabbonim and students on Pesach break from yeshivah shared novel Torah thoughts and insights. 

The event began in 1964 in the yet uncompleted B’nei Ruven, and then held in a succession of synagogues before returning to this one in the 1970s. Until 1973, the gatherings were arranged by Rabbi Zelig Gottlieb, a Chicago native who had studied in the Chabad Yeshivah in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

In those early years, the program was chaired by the late Rabbi Avraham Levitansky, who went on to be a legendary Rabbi and Chabad emissary in Santa Monica, California. Since the early 1970s, an active participant and later a driving force behind the kinusim was the late Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, Regional Director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois. 

Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois continues to organize this annual event. The speakers captured the attention of the audience as they conversed about diverse subjects of Halacha and Talmud. 

Emceeing the event this year was Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf, Dean of the Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School network.  Speakers included host Rabbi Boruch Hertz of Congregation Bnei Ruven; Rabbi Meir Moscowitz, Regional Director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, event sponsor; Rabbi Meir Hecht, Director of the Jewish Learning Institute of Metro Chicago; Rabbi Shmuel Berman; and yeshiva students Mendel Benjaminson; Gedalya Hertz and Yochanan Twersky. 

The room was filled with many who cut their own teeth there, standing in front of the crowd as young teens. Now, they enjoyed hearing the younger generation pick up the gauntlet, making sure that the 50-year-old tradition continues long into the future.