Shalom Aleichem "peace be upon you"

Chief Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew A"H (1892 - 1973), was a visionary, educator and prolific scholar who founded Commandment Keepers in Harlem, New York in 1919 during the height of the Marcus Garvey movement and the Harlem Renaissance. Chief Rabbi Matthew A"H was Chief of the Ethiopian Hebrews of the Western Hemisphere and the only rabbi with credentials from Ethiopia. The congregation under Chief Rabbi Matthew's tutelage survived World War I, the Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights era. In 1925 he founded the Ethiopian Hebrew Rabbinical College.

Rabbi Zechariah HaLewi Ibn Abraham A"H became the spiritual leader of the congregation in 2000 and continued to maintain and conduct a house of worship in keeping with the dictates of the written and oral laws of Orthodox Ethiopian Hebraic culture and other traditionally authoritative codifications of Hebrew Law as set forth in the mission and legacy of the late Chief Rabbi Matthew A"H. He spearheaded an operational plan embracing the vision, mission, values and objectives of the late Chief Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew’s legacy until being gravely injured in a fatal hit-and-run accident on Route 440 and Danforth Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey resulting in his untimely death on Sunday, September 27, 2015.

In the spirit of God’s promise to make Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; (Exodus 19:6); and in obedience to the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19:24) the Rabbi Zechariah Lewi (21st Century) Ethiopian Hebrew Rabbinical College (20th Century) is established to inspire, prepare and educate students through rigorous academic and professional study for rabbinic leadership as rabbis to serve the Ethiopian Hebrew community and humankind in the capacity of spiritual leaders, teachers, custodians, and healers. To fulfill the legacy set forth by our founder Chief Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew A"H, the college is reestablished to meet the need for serious learning and an open minded environment for the 21st Century. The rabbinical college was reestablished in 2015 to honor both Chief Rabbi Matthew (20th Century) and Rabbi Zechariah Lewi (21st Century). It represents the ideology of the 20th Century embodied by Chief Rabbi Matthew A"H in his lifetime along with the 21st Century new millennia ideology symbolized by Rabbi Zechariah Lewi A"H thereby establishing a link to both the 20th and 21st Centuries. The college will create an environment for the highly motivated student seeking in depth Torah learning in the new millennia. The school’s name merges the two ideologies of the 20th and 21st centuries: Rabbi Zechariah Lewi Ethiopian Hebrew Rabbinical College.

"This is the intent of what the Rabbis of blessed memory have said:...one should be as particular regarding a seemingly insignificant commandment "mitzvah" as he would be with a severe one, as all mitzvoth are desired and beloved, because through their performance a person acknowledges God. The intention of all mitzvoth is that we should believe in God and thank Him for creating us, and this is the intention of creation..." Ramban Exodus "Shemot" 13:16