Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Hertz, head of the Great Lubavitch Yeshiva in London and one of the main architects of Chabad in the United Kingdom, died late last week at age 88. The Orthodox world in Britain and beyond is mourning a figure who, for more than 60 years, worked directly under the Lubavitcher Rebbe to expand Torah learning, build institutions, and draw thousands closer to Judaism.
Hertz was born in Tel Aviv in 1938 to Rabbi Gedalia Hertz, head of the Chidushei HaRim yeshiva in the Gur Hasidic movement, and Hana Pearl. Although he grew up in a Gur household, his father maintained close ties with the Rebbe Rayatz and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and as a child he attended major Chabad gatherings in Tel Aviv that deeply shaped his path. In 1955 the family moved to Sydney, where his father became rabbi of a new Torah community, and Hertz later studied near Melbourne under Rabbi Zalman Serebryansky and Rabbi Shmuel Batsalel Altshul, becoming strongly attached to Chabad.
He first traveled to 770 in New York in 1956 and received extensive personal guidance from the Rebbe. Before his marriage in 1961 to Rebbetzin Rivka Wilhelm of Jerusalem, he served as a lecturer in a Gur yeshiva in Brooklyn while continuing his studies. In 1965 he received the Rebbe’s blessing to take on a mission in London, and Chabad official Rabbi Mordechai Yitzchak Hodakov told him that the appointment reflected the Rebbe’s complete confidence in him.
In London, Hertz became central to building Chabad educational life. He founded and led the Great Lubavitch Yeshiva, which drew outstanding students from around the world, and he was also instructed by the Rebbe to establish an open, welcoming synagogue in Hampstead Garden Suburb, eventually named Kingsley Way Beis Medrash. That synagogue grew into a busy center of Torah, charity, and outreach, bringing hundreds and thousands of Jews back to observance. Although he received offers for prestigious rabbinic posts elsewhere, he repeatedly asked the Rebbe whether to move and was told to remain in London. He leaves behind children who continue his work, and his funeral will be held in Israel.
