. The building was constructed after Hutner's death. In March 1934 Hutner moved to the United States (his wife having preceded him by six months) and settled in
Brooklyn, where Hutner joined the faculty of the
Rabbi Jacob Joseph School. Sometime between 1935 and 1936 he was appointed office manager of the newly established high school division of the
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin known as
Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. In 1940, after receiving permission from the rosh yeshiva, Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, he began to give a class to the 4th year of the post high school program. Founded in 1904, it was the oldest elementary yeshiva in Brooklyn. Over the years he built up the yeshiva's post-high school
beth midrash division and became Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin's senior
rosh yeshiva (dean). In this effort he also received the help of
Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz who headed Brooklyn's
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. Hutner was able to construct an environment that produced young Talmudic scholars in the model of their compatriots in Eastern Europe. By 1940 he had established a post-high-school beth midrash with hundreds of students. At Chaim Berlin, students were allowed to combine their yeshiva study with afternoon and evening classes at college, mainly
Brooklyn College and later
Touro College. Hutner took great pride in the secular accomplishments of his students insofar as they fit into his vision of a material world governed by the principles of a spiritual Torah way of life. Thus, many alumni of Hutner's yeshiva have attained success as attorneys, accountants, doctors, and in information technology. One of his closest disciples,
Israel Kirzner, is an economist who edited Hutner's written works,
Pachad Yitzchok. Many of Hutner's disciples earned doctorates, often with his blessing and guidance. This includes his daughter and only child,
Bruria David, who obtained her PhD at
Columbia University's department of philosophy as a student of
Salo Baron. She subsequently founded and became the dean of
Beth Jacob Jerusalem, a prominent Jewish women's seminary that caters to young women from
Haredi families in the United States. Her dissertation discussed the dual role
Zvi Hirsch Chajes as both a traditionalist and
maskil (follower of the
enlightenment). The list also includes
Ahron Soloveichik (law) rosh yeshiva,
Aharon Lichtenstein (literature) rosh yeshiva,
Yitzhak Aharon Korff (law, international law and diplomacy), and
Yehuda (Leo) Levi (physics) professor and rector. In the 1950s, Hutner established a
kollel (post graduate division for married scholars) to continue their in-depth Talmudical studies. This school,
Kollel Gur Aryeh, was one of the first of its kind in America. Many of his students became prominent educational, outreach, and pulpit rabbis. He stayed in touch with them and was involved in major communal policy decision-making as he worked through his network of students in positions of leadership. Hutner established
Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok in
Har Nof, Jerusalem, which he named for his book of the same name. He died in 1980, and was buried in the
Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in
East Jerusalem.
Methodology Hutner's methodology and style was complex, controversial, and difficult to pigeonhole. While placing great emphasis on intellectually penetrating Talmudic study and analysis, emotionally he veered towards the Hasidic-style, and more-so than his Lithuanian-style colleagues reared as
Misnagdim could tolerate. Ultimately though, he saw himself more as a traditional
Litvish rosh yeshiva. The core of Hutner's synthesis of different schools of Jewish thought was rooted in his studies of the teachings of
Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1525–1609) a scholar and mystic known as the
Maharal of Prague. Various pillars of Hutner's thought system were likely the works of the
Vilna Gaon and
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. He would only allude in the most general ways to other great
mekubalim (mystics) such as the
Baal Shem Tov, the
Ari,
Shneur Zalman of Liadi,
Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbitz and many other great Hasidic masters, as he did with the works of
Kabbalah such as the
Zohar. Hutner initiated a number of changes in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin that differed greatly from the
mussar (ethics) yeshiva practice in Slabodka. He abolished the half-hour learning session in
mussar and replaced it with one of ten or fifteen minutes. Hutner viewed secular studies as essential for attending college, learning a profession and becoming self-supporting. He obtained, together with Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, a charter from the
New York State Board of Regents to set up a combined yeshiva and college. However, this plan was dropped at the insistence of
Aharon Kotler. Hutner developed a style of celebrating
Shabbat and the
Jewish holidays by delivering a type of discourse known as a ''ma'amar
. It was a combination of Talmudic discourse, Hasidic celebration (tish), philosophic lecture, group singing, and when possible, like on Purim, a ten-piece band was brought in as accompaniment. Many times there was singing and dancing all night. All of this, together with the respect to his authority that he demanded, induced in his students an obedience and something of a "heightened consciousness" that passed into their lives transforming them into literal Hasidim of their rosh yeshiva, who in turn encouraged this by eventually personally donning Hasidic garb (levush'') and behaving like something of a synthesis between a rosh yeshiva and a
rebbe. He also instructed some of his students to do likewise. == Relationships with other rabbis ==