Avigdor HaKohen Miller was an American Haredi rabbi, author, and lecturer.
20 Facts About Avigdor Miller
1.
2.
Avigdor Miller served simultaneously as a communal rabbi, mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, and as a teacher in Beis Yaakov.
3.
Avigdor Miller was an American-born, European trained rabbi immersed in the demanding Lithuanian academic and mussar traditions.
4.
At age 14, Avigdor Miller went to New York City to attend Yeshivas Rabbenu Yitzchok Elchonon, at the time the only American high school offering high-level Jewish learning.
5.
Avigdor Miller met Isaac Sher, the son-in-law of Nosson Tzvi Finkel, who was in New York collecting funds for the Slabodka yeshiva at the time.
6.
In 1932, at the age of 24, Avigdor Miller arrived in Europe to study at the Slabodka yeshiva in Slabodke, Lithuania, where he was greeted personally by Avraham Grodzinski, the mashgiach ruchani.
7.
Avigdor Miller was compelled to wear a coat during the summer, in order to conceal the multitude of overlapping patches that were his trousers.
8.
In 1938, due to the rise of Nazism and the tensions leading up to World War II, Avigdor Miller sought to return to the United States with his wife and two sons.
9.
Avigdor Miller arranged passage for Miller's wife and children, who were not United States citizens.
10.
Avigdor Miller received special dispensation to refrain from sending his young sons to public school.
11.
In 1944, Yitzchak Hutner, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, hired Avigdor Miller to become its mashgiach ruchani, in which position he served until 1964.
12.
In 1975, with neighborhood demographics changing, Avigdor Miller established the Bais Yisroel of Rugby Torah Center on Ocean Parkway in Midwood, Brooklyn.
13.
In 1986, when his son opened Yeshiva Beis Yisrael, Avigdor Miller served as its rosh yeshiva.
14.
Avigdor Miller authored several books about Jewish history, Jewish thought and other subjects.
15.
Avigdor Miller gave most of his lectures in his Midwood synagogue.
16.
Avigdor Miller believed it is not appropriate to make fun of people due to their race.
17.
Avigdor Miller stressed that it needs to be done peacefully and through legal means.
18.
Avigdor Miller was outspoken in his belief that the Holocaust was a divine response to Jewish cultural assimilation in Europe.
19.
Avigdor Miller was known to lambaste other Orthodox Jewish organizations, such as the Orthodox Union, for allowing the teaching of the scientific theory of evolution.
20.
Avigdor Miller referred to the killer of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a "decent gentile".