BDE: Rabbi Dr. Avraham Joshua Twerski, Z”l

    We are saddened to inform the community of the petira of Rabbi Dr. Avraham Joshua Twerski, z”l, who was 90.

     Rav Twerski, who was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1930, who wrote 88 books on many topics, such as Judaism, self-help, addiction, depression, and stress. Among Rav Twerski’s many books were collaborations with Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz.

   After graduating high school at age 16, when Rav Twerski was 21, and he received smicha, he began to serve as co-rabbi with his father, Ha Rav Jacob Israel Twerski Congregation Beth Jehudah in Milwaukee, Wisc, in 1951.

   A direct descendant of the Chernobyler and Sanzer dynasties, Rabbi Twerski was able to trace his family tree all the way back to the Baal Shem Tov.

    After attending the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago, which now located in Skokie, Illinois, in 1960, Rav Twerski graduated from the medical school of Milwaukee's Marquette University. 

   In his clinical career as a world-renown expert on addiction and a trail-blazing psychiatrist who specialized in addiction, Rabbi Dr. Twerski merged ideas from the Mussar movement, the 12-Step Program, and ideas from clinical psychology.

   After medical school, Rabbi Dr. Twerski moved to Pittsburgh, Pa, to work at the Gateway Rehabilitation Center, which he founded. Rabbi Dr. Twerski also served as the clinical director of the Department of Psychiatry at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh and the associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. In addition, Rav Twerski, founded the Shaar Hatikvah rehabilitation center for prisoners in Israel.

    In addition to Rav Twerski’s positive and widespread contributions to the world of mental health, 60 years ago, Rabbi Dr. Twerski was also composed the well- known song, “Hoshia Es Amecha,” which is now sung by Jews worldwide. In response to a question about the melody that he composed to lyrics that come from Perek 28:9 of Tehillim, Rabbi Dr. Twerski said that there is perhaps no greater accomplishment that spreading joy throughout the world.

    “I am so thrilled that I have had the zechus to give people something they can dance to,” said Rabbi Dr. Twerski, who, later in his life, lived in Boro Park for many years until he moved to Israel, where he passed away at the Laniado Hospital in Netanya.

Yehi Zichra Boruch.