Yitzchak Dovid Grossman

His mother, Perl (1923–2012), was the daughter of Rabbi Yosef Gutfarb, a teacher at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem.

He is one of six brothers and four sisters.

He grew up in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem and attended Yeshivas Karlin.

Yitzchak Dovid Grossman (יצחק דוד גרוסמן) (born 15 September 1946 in Jerusalem), also known as the "Disco Rabbi", is the Chief Rabbi of Migdal HaEmek, founder and dean of Migdal Ohr educational institutions, and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council of Israel.

Migdal HaEmek was founded in 1953 to help absorb the mass aliyah of Sephardi Jewish immigrants from North Africa, Migdal HaEmek's population growth drastically outpaced its socioeconomic and educational infrastructure.

With a shortage of jobs and dearth of schools, the town was plagued by widespread crime and alcohol and drug abuse.

Grossman, looking every inch the Hasidic rabbi with his beard and sidelocks, embarked on a one-man campaign to rehabilitate Sephardi youth immersed in crime and drug use.

He went straight to the pubs and discos where idle youth from distressed homes were hanging out and gained their trust with love and caring.

An alumnus of Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Grossman received rabbinical ordination in 1966.

Desiring to do religious outreach in one of Israel's secular neighborhoods, he moved to the Lower Galilee town of Migdal HaEmek in 1968.

In 1969, one year after his arrival, the town unanimously elected him Chief Rabbi of Migdal HaEmek, giving him lifetime tenure.

At age 23, he was the youngest municipal Chief Rabbi in Israel.

In 1970 Israeli television dubbed him the "Disco Rabbi".

In another case, he let 700 members of the 8th Paratrooper Battalion use Migdal Ohr as their home base during the three weeks of the war, supplying clean clothing, new gear, and use of the recreational facilities.

He also arranged a Hachnosas Sefer Torah ceremony for them and blessed them with safety and success.

When the war ended, he invited all 700 soldiers back to Migdal Ohr for another party.

A preseason exhibition game between the Israeli Maccabi team and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden is one of Migdal Ohr's biggest fund-raising events.

He is known for his work with children from disadvantaged and troubled homes, having rehabilitated tens of thousands of youth through his educational network founded in 1972.

Grossman is a sixth-generation Jerusalemite and the scion of a prominent Hasidic family.

His father, Rabbi Yisrael Grossman, served as rosh yeshiva of Pinsk-Karlin and of Chabad in Lod, and was a member of the rabbinical court of Agudat Yisrael.

In 1972 Grossman founded the Migdal Ohr (Tower of Light) educational network to give children a loving and caring environment at the age of 6 or 7 so that they could circumvent the cycle of crime and drug abuse that plagued the town's teens and adults.

The year of its founding Migdal Ohr enrolled 18 students.

By its second year it had doubled in size.

Migdal Ohr now enrolls over 6,000 boys and girls in 15 high schools and elementary schools and seven daycare centers occupying a 65 acre campus.

In 1974 he initiated Shaked – Rehabilitation Through Religion, now operating in all Israeli prisons, which has reduced the recidivism rate of its participants to 20 percent.

This program gives over 900 inmates, mostly jailed for drug-dealing and armed robbery, the choice to study in a prison kollel on a voluntary basis for three to four hours a day.

Rabbis and teachers deliver shiurim (Torah classes) and build the prisoners' Torah knowledge, while at the same time mentoring the prisoners' families to prepare a new support system after release.

Participants have one-third of their sentence reduced for good behavior.

Hundreds of released inmates have become ba'alei teshuva (returnees to the faith) through this program and work as rabbis, Torah teachers, and kollel students.

For his contribution, Grossman received the honorary title of Avi Ha'asirim (Father of the Prisoners) from the Israeli government, a title originally bestowed on Rabbi Aryeh Levin.

Grossman has been offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel twice but declined both times in favor of continuing his outreach work in Migdal HaEmek.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Grossman used his location in the north of Israel to provide services to soldiers suffering from the government’s inefficient handling of troops and supplies.

In one instance, he opened the Migdal Ohr campus to 700 Israeli paratroopers of the IDF Brigade 85 who were stranded in a tank hangar in Petah Tikva, hosting them for swimming, a barbecue and dancing with live Hasidic music.

In 2009, Grossman's attempt to mediate the ejection of the Israeli coach resulted in coverage in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, and other papers.

As of 2013, it had educated over 17,000 children; one graduate, formerly a 12-year-old dropout, went on to become a member of Knesset.

Through his discussions with youth, Grossman found out that many children had a father or brother in prison.

In March 2018, Grossman testified for bail to be given in the case of former school principal Malka Leifer, who is accused of rape and 74 counts of sexual abuse incidents at Adass Israel School in Melbourne.

Leifer has been avoiding extradition to Australia.

Leifer's husband, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef (Jacob) Leifer, also fled to Israel with her, where he now heads the small Chust Hassidic community in Emmanuel, where his wife had been living and was arrested.

On March 7, 2018, Grossman argued that it was a "humiliation" for Leifer to remain in custody while awaiting trial and she was released to his custody.