Aryeh Kaplan
| Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan | |
|---|---|
| Position | Rabbi |
| Synagogue | Adas Israel, B'nai Sholom, Adath Israel, Ohav Shalom |
| Other | Physicist |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Leonard Martin Kaplan |
| Born | October 23, 1934 Bronx, NY |
| Died | January 28, 1983 (aged 48) Brooklyn, NY |
| Yahrtzeit | 14 Shevat (next occurs on January 30, 2018) |
| Buried | Mount of Olives, Israel |
| Denomination | Orthodox |
| Residence | Brooklyn, NY |
| Profession | Rabbi, Writer, Physicist |
| Alma mater | University of Louisville, University of Maryland |
| Semicha | Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem |
In his earlier years, Rabbi Kaplan went by his secular name, Leonard (Len). His mother, Fannie Kaplan, died on December 31, 1947 when he was 13, leading him to grow up as a "street kid" in the Bronx, as he was expelled from public school after acting out. His family only had a small connection to Jewish practice, but he was encouraged to say Kaddish for his mother. On his first day at the minyan, Henoch Rosenberg, a 14-year Klausenburger chossid, realized that Len was out of place, as he was not wearing tefillin or opening a siddur and befriended him. The Rosenbergs learned the reason Len didn't use the siddur was because he couldn't read Hebrew and so decided to teach him how to read it. He ended up studying in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and eventually went to the Mir, in Jerusalem, where he received semicha (rabbinical ordination) from Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel in 1956.
In the late 1950s, Kaplan went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he taught at Eliahu Academy and studied at University of Louisville, where he joined Sigma Pi Sigma, the Woodcock Society, and Phi Kappa Phi and eventually completed his bachelor's degree in Physics in 1961. While in Louisville, he met Tobie Goldstein, whom he married on June 13, 1961 and had nine children with.
After completing his bachelor's degree, Kaplan moved to Hyattsville, Maryland, where he was in charge of Magnetohydrodynamics research at the Fluid Mechanics Division of the National Bureau of Standards. During this time, he received a cooperative graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation and US Air Force for his graduate work at the University of Maryland.
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Wikipedia