Rabbi Pinchas Aryeh Stolper zt”l

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rabbi Pinchas Aryeh Stolper zt”l. He was 90 years old.

Rabbi Stolper was an internationally renowned pioneer in Jewish youth work, widely respected as a lecturer, teacher, educator, author and thinker.

Rabbi Stolper was the founder of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), for which he served for 18 years as National Director, from its infancy through its seminal role in the international teshuvah movement.

During his more than forty years of working with Jewish youth, Rabbi Stolper met and counseled thousands of young people. Thanks to Rabbi Stolper, NCSY became one of the world’s largest and most respected youth movement today, serving over 40,000 young people in the United States, Canada, Israel and Ukraine.

Rabbi Stolper served as Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union for eighteen years, before returning to the position as National Director of NCSY.

In his younger years, Rabbi Stolper was a talmid of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, where he received semicha and was a close talmid of the rosh yeshiva, Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l.

Rabbi Stolper’s attendance at Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin was due to an interesting sequence of events. A few short years after the Holocaust, then-Mayor of New York Vincent Impellitteri invited a German soccer team to City Hall and honored them with a reception. With the pain of the Holocaust still fresh, Rabbi Stolper felt it his duty to stand up and protest what he considered a serious affront to the memories of the six million. He and 12 other people gathered to distribute leaflets and throw rotten tomatoes at the mayor, his entourage and the German soccer team. The reception was ruined and Rabbi Stolper was arrested. Rabbi Stolper’s picture was splashed on the front cover of the Daily Mirror as well as many other papers. The following day, Rav Hutner was eating breakfast together with Rabbi Chaim Feuerman and was perusing a copy of the Daily Mirror. Rav Hutner pointed to the picture of the then 18-year-old Pinchas Stolper and exclaimed, “This young man has chutzpah. We need him in our yeshiva.” From that event, Rabbi Stolper was enrolled into Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and became one of the central talmidim of Rav Hutner, dedicating his life to disseminating the rosh yeshiva’s Torah to the world.

Rabbi Stolper was also influential in bringing the works of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan to the world. In Rabbi Stolper’s introduction to The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology, he records how he “discovered” Rabbi Kaplan: “I first encountered this extraordinary individual when by chance I spotted his article on Immortality in the Soul in Intercom, the journal of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and was taken by his unusual ability to explain a difficult topic – one usually reserved for advanced scholars, a topic almost untouched previously in English – with such simplicity that it could be understood by any intelligent reader. It was clear to me that his special talent could fill a significant void in English Judaica. I always counted as one of my greatest z’chusim to have had the privilege of ‘discovering’ Rabbi Kaplan. And once we met, we became lifelong friends. When I invited Rabbi Kaplan to write on the concept of tefillin for the Orthodox Union’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth, he completed the 96- page manuscript of G-d, Man and Tefillin with sources and footnotes from the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar in less than 2 weeks. The book – masterful, comprehensive, inspiring yet simple – set a pattern which was to characterize all of his succeeding works.”

A prolific writer and editor, he was responsible for over 20 volumes and hundreds of articles on various topics of Torah and hashkafah.

Rabbi Stolper is survived by his wife, Rebbetzin Elaine Stolper, and his children, Rabbi Akiva Stolper and Rebbetzin Michal Cohen. He was predeceased by his daughter, Mrs. Malkie Kaweblum of Lakewood.

The levayah will take place tomorrow, Thursday, May 26, at 9 a.m., at Shomrei Hadass Chapels, located at 39^th Street and 14^th Avenue in Boro Park, Brooklyn. The aron will then be flown to Eretz Yisroel for kevurah on Friday on Har Hamenuchos in Yerushalayim.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Matzav.com}