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Hornistiepol is a unique Chassidic community

centered in Yerushalayim. With its roots in a small town in the Ukraine over two hundred years ago, led by descendants of the great Chassidic masters, the Baal Shem Tov, Baal Hatanya, Reb Zushia, Reb Nochem of Chernobyl and more, a small mostly English speaking community lives on the legacy, led by our esteemed Rebbe. The famous tzedaka of Eretz Yisroel, "Kupas Rebbe Meir Ba'al Hanes", was under the direct auspices of the Rebbe's of Hornistiepol from the time of the first Yishuv when the students of the Ba'al Shem Tov in the 1780s came to settle the Holy Land, all the way up until World War II.

  • The Rebbe, Rav Sholom Shachna Friedman Shlit"a, originally from Denver, Colorado, USA, where his father-in-law Rav Shloimie Twerski Zt"l was Rebbe, has been living in Yerushalayim over thirty years. In that time he has taught in various settings, but much of the community which exists today has developed from his Thursday night English shiur in chassidus. Six years ago we successfully opened a Beis Medrash in the Sanhedriya area of Yerushalayim in close proximity to where the Rebbe lives. Since then several families have moved close by and dozens more from the area and close proximity attend regular minyanim and shiurim. Everyone in the community is guided by the Rebbe in many aspects of life, and he is the bond that everyone unites around. His table is filled on a weekly basis for Shabbos meals by literally dozens, and on the chagim it can double or triple in size. Many of the people who have grown close to the Rebbe and our community who do not live in Yerushalayim visit many times a year, and especially on the chagim. Community events such as weddings, bris milah, yartzeit seudos, etc., really bring everyone together.
  • Besides for several weekly shiurim given by the Rebbe, the Rebbetzin also gives three shiurim a week for the women of the community, as well as many other women from around Yerushalayim that attend. This has very much bonded the women of Hornistiepol together, and led them to create a women's group that tries to meet at least once a month. And needless to say, most of the women have a very close bond as well, even despite not being located in close proximity. There is another recently developed daily shiur in Halacha led by one of the avrechim after maariv, started based on the need of bonding everyone together.
  • Although we are a "Chassidic" community, we are a very unique one. It is a place where everyone feels welcome, not at all based on how one appears. It is very common to see Jews of all walks of life sitting around the Rebbe's table. A "chasid" that frequents the Rebbe's classes is a teacher at Yeshivas Aish Hatorah, and very regularly brings many secular Jews, or on-the-way ba'alei teshuva to the Rebbe's Thursday night class which is in English. This makes for an interesting mix, but nobody is turned away, or feels on the outside. Many of the members of our community are themselves "baalei teshuva" as well a few converts. The Rebbe is able to help people grown through Torah and Mitzvos, each at their own pace without any feeling of pressure. This makes Hornistiepol very unique, as one of the only English speaking Chassidic groups in Israel, and led by one of the only native English speaking Rebbes, whose teachings and counsel are unmatched. 
  • One of the greatest challenges we face as a growing community is that not everyone lives together. Even if the majority of us live within a one to five minute walk from the Beis Medrash in such a huge city like Yerushalayim there are worlds that lie between us. Another great challenge is that even though many of the members of the community learn full time in kollel, we are scattered about because we haven't successfully been able to keep open our own kollel, because of lack of funding. This is something that the Rebbe is very adamant about, however without funding we are left to be scattered about.
  •  We have decided to open a Yeshiva/kollel for the members of our community to feel at home, and a center of Torah for all to grow and flourish together.