Few would deny that the single most powerful figure in the development of Breslover Chassidus in America was Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld. This modest, unassuming man came on the scene at a time when Breslov was all but unknown, in a country where so many Jews were still reeling from the Holocaust and were scrambling to build a decent life for themselves and their families. Religion and spirituality too often fell by the wayside. Rabbi Rosenfeld was one of America’s first kiruv activists – a pioneer in kiruv in the early 1950s — long before the term baal teshuvah became fashionable.

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With a penetrating mind and relentless zeal, Rabbi Rosenfeld mastered all fields of Torah learning: Talmud, Halakhah, Midrash, Zohar and the Kabbalah. Rabbi Rosenfeld’s first priority was to bring Torah and yiras Shamayim to young people who were growing up deprived of the beautiful legacy of their nation. Many of his young students were tough, ornery and undisciplined, so unruly that one teacher after another quit on them – until Rabbi Rosenfeld became their teacher. Students who had been labeled uncontrollable came to consider him their rebbi.

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Irate parents claimed Rabbi Rosenfeld was brainwashing their children. Some threatened him with violence; some filed complaints with the police, insisting that he had kidnapped their children; but the boys and girls he taught were flourishing. He loved them as though they were his own children, and they knew it. He taught them how to keep Shabbos, to learn Torah and Gemara and halakhah, to live Jewish lives. He sent them to Jewish summer camps and to Jewish schools and yeshivos, often raising the funds to cover the costs, or even paying out of his own pocket. And he was totally dedicated to them long after they moved on in their Jewish education; he helped them build Jewish homes and made himself fully available to them through every life event, both joyous and painful.

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Although he was a staunch Breslover Chassid, he did not impose his views on his young charges. His objective was to bring American youth back to their Jewish heritage. Yet his personality was so compelling, his teaching style so inspiring, that his students, who grew to lead Torah-true lives, continued to look to Rabbi Rosenfeld as their rebbi and became dedicated Breslover Chassidim themselves.

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Rabbi Rosenfeld is also credited with having accomplished the seemingly impossible when he opened access to Rebbe Nachman’s gravesite in the 1960s.

When Rabbi Rosenfeld passed away, it was far too soon for his many devoted talmidim; he was only 56. Today, most of them are older than he was at the time of his passing, on 11 Kislev, 5739 (December, 1978), yet they still consider him to be their rebbi