Rabbi Moshe Twersky, originally from Boston, was the scion of the two great rabbinic families. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soleveitchik, the head of Yeshiva University and the founder of Modern Orthodoxy in America. On his father's side he was descended from the famous Twersky Hassidic dynasty and the grandson of Rabbi Meshullam Twersky, the Toner Rebbe of Boston. His parents’ marriage was a bridge between two worlds. Moshe's father, Rabbi Isadore Twersky, was the founder of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard. Moshe Twersky graduated from Maimonides School, then attended Harvard University and later at Yeshiva University, where he was considered one of his grandfather's most brilliant students.
Rabbi Twersky came on Aliya in 1990 with his family. He was head of the Torat Moshe Yeshiva, one of the first in Israel to cater to post-high school students from English speaking countries. One of his former students eulogized him - "He was an angel among men. He was a paradigm of holiness and purity, a tzaddik in every sense of the word." He was a gentle, affable, loving tolerant and humble man who preferred to sit in the back of the yeshiva study hall rather than "at the head of the table."
On the morning of November 18, 2014, two Palestinians armed with guns, knives and axes entered the Kehillat Bnei Torah Synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem during the early minyan. They attacked the worshippers indiscriminately, killing 4 and wounding 7. The attackers were killed by police, but only after a Druze policeman was killed by the terrorist in the shoot-out.
He is survived by his wife Miriam, 5 children, and 10 grandchildren. He was 59 years old.
