Eliyahu Ben Haim


Eliyahu Ben Haim is a Sephardi rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and Orthodox halachist. He is the Av Beit Din of Mekor Haim in Queens, New York, and a prominent leader of New York's Sephardi Jewish community.

Early life

Born in Israel, Rabbi Ben Haim studied at Yeshivat Porat Yosef, where he was recognized as a prodigy with a distinguished memory. He attended the shiur of Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul and received semicha from Rabbi Ezra Attia and other great Rabbis at the age of 17, he was tested on the entire Shulchan Aruch. In Porat Yosef, Rabbi Ben Haim fostered a close relationship with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who studied Even Ha'ezer with him.

Community work

In 1962, at the age of 22, he was appointed maggid shiur at Yeshiva Beth Harashal in Jerusalem. Five years later, he became the rosh yeshiva of that yeshiva. In 1973 he began teaching at the Lifshitz Teachers Seminary in Jerusalem. In 1975 he was sent by the Jewish Agency to serve as a rabbi in Tehran, where he hosted Rabbi Ovadia Yosef during his historic trip to Iran. In Tehran, Ben Haim began serving the local community of Mashadi Jews as a rabbi. In 1979, in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, he came with his family to the United States and served as the chief rabbi of the Mashadi Persian Jewish community of Long Island. Since 1993, he has lectured at Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan at Yeshiva University.
Ben Haim was considered a close friend of Mordechai Eliyahu and delivered many eulogies for him. Ben Haim runs the Beth Din Mekor Haim, there he addresses the needs of the Queens Jewish community in matters of marriage, divorce, conversion, civil law, and kosher supervision. Ben Haim runs a Kolel affiliated with the Beth Din as well. One of Ben Haim's students is Avraham Gaon, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Etzion in Fresh Meadows, Queens.
, Teddy Kollek, and David Ben Gurion shortly after the Six-Day War. This picture hangs in the Old City of Jerusalem's Four Sephardic Synagogues

Vision and outlook

Rabbi Ben Haim, like his teacher, Ovadia Yosef, advocates using the Kochah DeHeterah to assist every Jew in need, especially agunahs, women whose husbands refuse to provide a get.