Everyone's Menahel

Rabbi Yosef Chaim Klein was a trailblazer in the world of chinuch in America. A legendary mechanech and talmid chacham, he instituted Yeshiva Shacharis, night-seder mishmar, and the recess bell.

A talmid of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz and Rav Shlomo Heiman, he assumed the leadership of the Mirrer Mesivta, devoting the next forty-plus years of his life to serving as the menahel, rebbi, English principal, vekker, and father figure for countless talmidim. He disciplined with love and strength, sprinkled with his refreshing sense of humor and ever-present set of keys, as he shaped both talmidim and rebbeim.

He molded, inspired and taught how to learn, how to live, and how to succeed - and demonstrated that there is nothing more precious, more sacred, or more important than limud haTorah.

“The reason Rav Klein was so matzliach was because he treated the Mesivta like his own personal business. Only with that mindset was he able to see so much success.”

Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum

“One of the people who impacted my life the most was Rabbi Klein.”

Rabbi Dovid Trenk