Yonasan Dovid David (also known as Jonathan Dovid David) is a Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok and Kollel Ohr Eliyahu in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. He also serves as the co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin together with Rabbi Shlomo Halioua (and previously with the Halioua’s father-in-law, Rabbi Aaron Schechter) in Brooklyn, New York.
David was married to Rebbitzin Bruria David, the only child of Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, until her death on April 9, 2023.[1] David is often cited as a notable source within the Haredi world's intellectual circles.[2][3][4][5]
David became a disciple of Hutner when he enrolled at the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin as a teenager.[citation needed] He studied for a while also at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
In 1970 Rabbi David and his wife accompanied her father and mother on a trip from New York to Israel. During their return flight on September 6, 1970, their plane was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The terrorists freed the non-Jewish passengers and held the Jewish passengers hostage on the plane for one week, after which the women and children – including David and his mother – were released and sent to Cyprus. During a press conference held on the airfield next to the hijacked planes, journalists were invited to interview several hostages, including David. He told the press that "the captives were being treated decently, but that the terrorists were circulating among their captives with biks (the Yiddish word for machine guns) in their hands".[6]
The hijacked airplanes were subsequently detonated, and the remaining 40-plus Jewish men – including Hutner, David, and two students accompanying Hutner, Rabbi Meir Fund and Rabbi Yaakov Drillman – and male flight crew continued to be held hostage, first in a refugee camp and then in safe houses in and around Amman, Jordan. On September 26, Hutner, David, and the students were released and flown to Nicosia, Cyprus. Israeli Knesset Member Rabbi Menachem Porush chartered a private plane to meet them in Nicosia, and reported that the men looked emaciated. On September 28, Hutner, David, their wives and students were flown back to New York via Europe, and were home in time for the first night of Rosh Hashana.[6]
Yonasan and Bruria have edited the works of Hutner, known as Pachad Yitzchok ("Fear of Isaac").[7] They also compiled and published the official biography of Hutner, known as "Sefer HaZikaron" ("Book of Remembrance").[8] David edited a subsequent volume of Hutner's "Igros Ukesavim" ("Letters and Writings").[9][10] David has also released previously unpublished sermons of Hutner known as Ma'amarei Pachad Yitzchok ("Talks/Teachings of Pachad Yitzchok").[11]
This volume consists of 264 letters and other writings. The unique character of this volume, as distinct from the other published volumes of the Pachad Yitzchak series, is spelled out in a brief introduction consisting of divrei Torah contributed by Rabbi Yonasan David shlita (son-in-law of the Rosh Yeshivah). The volume is divided into several sections: The first section contains letters dealing primarily with Hilchos De'os Vechovas Halevavos (duties of the heart and mind.)
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