{{Short description|Lithuanian rabbi}} {{Infobox Jewish leader | honorific-prefix = Rabbi | name = Chaim Dovid Hakohen Leibowitz | honorific-suffix = | image = Rabbi Dovid Lebowitz.png | nationality = [[United States of America|American]] | organisation = [[Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim]] | organisationposition = [[Rosh yeshiva]] (dean) | began = 1933 | ended = December 4, 1941 | predecessor = | successor = [[Henoch Leibowitz]] <!---------- Personal details ----------> | birth_date = May 15, 1887 | birth_place = [[Vilnius]], [[Russian Empire]] (present-day [[Lithuania]]) | death_date = {{death date and age|1941|12|4|1887|5|15}} | death_place = [[New York City|New York]] | children = [[Henoch Leibowitz]] | alma_mater = [[Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka)]] }} '''Dovid Leibowitz''' (May 15, 1887 – December 4, 1941) was a [[History of the Jews in Russia#Russian Empire|Russian]]-born American [[rabbi]]. A disciple of [[Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka)|Slabodka yeshiva]] in [[Lithuania]], he went on to found [[Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim]] in the United States, where he served as [[rosh yeshiva]] (dean).
==Early life== As a teenager Leibowitz studied in the [[Raduń Yeshiva|Radin Yeshiva]], where he held private study sessions with his great-uncle and founder of the yeshiva—[[Yisrael Meir Kagan]]—helping him to write the last volume of his ''[[Mishnah Berurah]]''.<ref name="ginzberg">{{cite news | author=Ginzberg, R. Aryeh Zev | title=A Builder of Torah | url=http://www.chazaq.org/storage/File/april.exe | work=Chazaq | date=April 2009 | accessdate=2009-04-12 | archive-date=2011-07-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725161327/http://www.chazaq.org/storage/File/april.exe | url-status=dead }}</ref> He also studied there under [[Naftoli Trop]]. In 1908 Leibowitz transferred to the [[Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka)|Slabodka yeshiva]], where he studied under [[Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Slabodka)|Nosson Tzvi Finkel]]. In 1915 Leibowitz succeeded his father-in-law as rabbi of [[Šalčininkai]]. After six years he returned to Slabodka as a founding member of the Slabodka ''[[kollel]]''.
==Career== In January 1927, Leibowitz went to the United States as a fund-raiser for the ''kollel'', and was invited to become the first [[rosh yeshiva]] (dean) of [[Mesivta Torah Vodaath]].<ref name="ginzberg" /> Among his students were [[Gedalia Schorr]] and [[Avraham Yaakov Pam]]. In 1933, Leibowitz founded the Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA) in the [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn|Williamsburg]] neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He did so after a dispute arose with [[Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz]]—head of Torah Vodaath—over the goals of Torah Vodaath, and consequent legal proceedings before a [[Beth din|rabbinical court]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Zecharia|last=Dor-Shav|title=Dershowitz Family Saga|publisher=Skyhorse|year=2022|pages=29–30}}</ref> Leibowitz served as RSA's first rosh yeshiva. The school, which later moved to [[Kew Gardens Hills, Queens]] is better known today as [[Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim]], so named for Leibowitz's great-uncle, who was known as the "[[Chofetz Chaim]]".
==Death== Leibowitz died of a heart attack on Thursday December 4, 1941. His funeral was held on Sunday [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|December 7, 1941]]. The yeshiva was headed for the following sixty-seven years by his only son, [[Henoch Leibowitz]].
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://kevarim.com/rabbi-chaim-dovid-leibowitz/ Rabbi Leibowitz's gravestone]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leibowitz, Dovid}} [[Category:1887 births]] [[Category:1941 deaths]] [[Category:Torah Vodaath rosh yeshivas]] [[Category:20th-century American rabbis]] [[Category:People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn]] [[Category:Religious leaders from Brooklyn]] [[Category:Slabodka yeshiva alumni]] [[Category:20th-century Lithuanian rabbis]]