Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Hertz, the longtime head of the Chabad Talmudic academy in Golders Green and one of the senior Lubavitch rabbis in England, died on Friday evening at age 88. He also served on the London Beth Din of the United Synagogue, and was widely regarded as a beloved figure among thousands of students in London and the global Chabad community. His funeral is scheduled for Sunday in Jerusalem, where he will be buried.
Hertz was born on 4 Iyar 5698 in Tel Aviv to Rabbi Gedalia Hertz, a Chabad scholar who had studied in Warsaw and with Rabbi Shimon Shkop. In 1956 he moved from Israel to New York, where he studied with Rabbi Yisrael Friedman and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Sham Tov. After marrying Rebbetzin Rivka in 1961, he taught at a Gur yeshiva in Crown Heights and, a few years later, was sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to England in Adar 5726, after a farewell gathering attended by Rabbi Dovid Raskin and Rabbi Ben Zion Shemtov.
In London, Hertz devoted himself to local youth work. He founded a boys' high school and then, in 1982, established the London branch of Tomchei Temimim, known as Yeshiva Gedolah Lubavitch London, which he led until his death, training thousands of students over nearly 45 years. He also founded the Kingsley Way Chabad community in 1974 and served as its rabbi and local religious authority for the rest of his life.
He later became a dayan on the Beth Din of the United Synagogue in London, and was appointed to the Council of European Rabbis and the Lubavitch Rabbis Committee. The article notes that, after completing his dayanut studies, he asked the Rebbe whether to focus on education or law and received a handwritten instruction not to abandon education, described as planting a tree that bears fruit for generations. He is survived by children and sons-in-law who continue serving as rabbis and emissaries in the United States, England, Belgium and elsewhere.
