Rabbi Adler z"l Yamim Noraim - Congregation Rinat Yisrael

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Photos from Rabbi Adler's zt"l Azkara

For photos from the Azkara - click here

For a recording of the livestream - click here

weekend in memory of rabbi adler zt"l

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Rabbi Yosef Adler zT"l

9/26/25

Dear Rinat family,

Over the course of Rosh Hashana we had the opportunity to reflect on Rabbi Adler’s profound and enduring influence on our community. Many of you have shared stories, as well as suggestions for how best to honor his legacy.

In the coming weeks, we will gather for a Leil Azkara in Rabbi Adler’s memory. We look forward to sharing the exact date once plans are coordinated with the Adler family.

For over four decades, Rabbi Adler built our kehilla upon a foundation of inspirational Torah and beautiful tefillah. Our commemoration will accordingly begin with shared Torah learning. We will conduct a siyum mishnayot to be completed over the next several weeks.

Please click this link so that each one of us can participate in this meaningful learning opportunity.

Looking further ahead, we also plan to complete a siyum on shas and on Tanach, adding proper kavod to the commemoration of Rabbi Adler’s yahrzeit. More details about this collective endeavor will be shared soon.

Rabbi Adler’s family has expressed how meaningful it has been to receive countless stories of his quiet interactions with congregants, acts of kindness and descriptions of his lasting influence, many of which they had never known. Because the shortened shiva period limited their ability to hear these in person, we invite you to share your stories, letters or photos by emailing RabbiAdlerMemories@Rinat.org. We will compile and present them to the family so that they can experience the full breadth and depth of Rabbi Adler’s impact on our kehilla.

We look forward to providing further details of the Leil Azkara in the days ahead.

Wishing you a G’mar Chatimah Tovah and Shabbat Shalom,

Natan Krohn, President
Rabbi Chaim Strauchler

Rabbi Yosef Adler zT"l

9/21/25

To Our Beloved Rinat family,

It was deeply meaningful yesterday morning at Rinat, to watch Rabbi Adler’s funeral together, and to share the embrace of community as we shed quiet tears. Yet, we know we speak for many when we say: it is not enough. Our hearts are still broken.
We have lost our Rav, the one who held our hands and guided us through the happiest and saddest moments of our lives. We have lost the voice of our tefilot, the ruach that lifted our neshamot in this season of rachamim and din. We have lost the wellspring of Torah that inspired us to draw close to Hashem and to live lives of meaning.

At this moment, our focus is rightly on Sheryl and on Rabbi Adler’s family, the aveilim defined by halacha. But in truth, we are all aveilim, each in our own way. Today we will share memories of Rabbi Adler at the shiva, in the home of Dov and Sheva. We know that the memories will flood our souls as we hear the nusach of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in the days ahead.

While we, as a shul, will gather to mourn and to honor Rabbi Adler’s legacy in the weeks and months ahead, we believe it is especially meaningful to re-visit some of Rabbi Adler's Torah and Yamim Noraim niggunim as we go into Rosh Hashana. Below are links to two of Rabbi Adler’s pre-Rosh Hashana shiurim, as well as to a recorded concert of his Yamim Noraim niggunim, which he shared with us in 2020 during COVID. For those of us who cherished Rabbi Adler’s moving Yamim Noraim davening, and who will continue to recall the sounds of his beautiful nusach for years to come, we hope these recordings will bring some measure of nechama.

September 2nd, 2020 - Rabbi Adler's Pre-Rosh Hashana Series - Part 1 - click here

September 9th, 2020 - Rabbi Adler Pre-Rosh Hashana Series - Part 2 - click here

September 13th, 2020 - Rabbi Adler's Pre Yamim Noraim Concert - click here

May his memory be a blessing, and may his neshama be bound in the bond of eternal life.
With heavy hearts,

Rabbi Chaim Strauchler
Natan Krohn, President

Founding Rabbi Yosef Adler zT"l

Founding Rabbi Yosef Adler zt"l served as the Morah d'Atra of Congregation Rinat Yisrael from 1979 - 2021. He has also been the Rosh HaYeshiva of Torah Academy of Bergen County since 1990 where he teaches the honors Gemara shiur for the ninth and tenth grades.

A gifted educator and respected posek, Rabbi Adler strives to pass along to our congregation the wisdom and values of his mentor, the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik zt”l. His overall goal, as he has often stated, is to produce a generation of B’nai Torah who recognize their responsibilities to G-d, their fellow man, and Medinat Yisrael. During a recent mini–Sabbatical in Israel, he wrote a commentary on the Haggadah based on the teaching of the Rav, zt"l.

Rabbi Adler previously served as associate principal at Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal. He taught Talmud and American History at Frisch, and was also coordinator of the Advanced Talmud Department at Ramaz. He received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University and his master´s degree at its Bernard Revel Graduate School. He was a member and former president of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County.

Fri, November 7 2025
16 Cheshvan 5786