Rabbi Shlomo Wiener was raised in Brookline, and graduated from McGill University. After learning Torah for many years under the guidance of great Torah luminaries, he helped to establish a branch of Ohr Somayach in Johannesburg, South Africa. This project gave birth to a branch in Capetown, and has launched five Ohr Somayach synagogues in Johannesburg. When he arrived, 8% of the Jewish community in Johannesburg was Shomer Shabbos. Today, that figure is 24%. He also was active in the Jewish community in Santiago, Chile, and speaks Spanish fluently.
For the past 16 years, Rabbi Wiener has been the head of the successful Center Program in Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem. The Center Program is geared for academically gifted students who want to gain self-sufficiency in the classical Jewish texts. The students typically come from fine universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Brown, MIT, Brandeis, and Tufts. Upon graduating from the program, the students typically become leaders in their professions and in their communities. In fact, Rabbi’s Greene and Katz are graduates of the Center Program. Rabbi Wiener is also the Head of the Ohr Somayach North American Campus Initiative, overseeing campus programs at 13 prestigious universities throughout North America.