Rabbi Aharon Chein is a leading voice of the Georgian-Jewish diaspora and the longtime director of the Chabad Association for Georgian Jews in Rego Park, Queens. Born in the mountain town of Oni, Georgia, he moved to Israel as a child and studied at Rabbi Yosef Caro Elementary, Yeshivat HaNegev, and the advanced Yeshivot Ketanah and Gedolah. He completed kollel studies in Sderot in 1982, earning rabbinic ordination together with certifications as a shochet u-bodek, sofer and mohel (skokosher.com).

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A gifted scribe, Rabbi Chein hand-wrote a Torah scroll for the famed Baba Sali in 1982; that scroll is still read today in the beit midrash of Baba Sali’s son, Rabbi Baruch Abuhatzeira (skokosher.com). After several years supervising kosher slaughter in Israel, he immigrated to the United States in 1987, serving as a shochet at Falls Poultry, Weiss Packing and Agri-Processing under OU, KAJ and CHK supervision (skokosher.com).

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In 1992 the Lubavitcher Rebbe personally asked Rabbi Chein to devote himself to the growing Georgian community in Queens. He founded the Chabad Association for Georgian Jews that same year (today headquartered at 66-40 Saunders St.) and has served ever since as its rabbi and spiritual leader, alongside Rabbi Avraham Ashville (chabad.org, en.wikipedia.org). Under his guidance the community flourished, spawning landmark initiatives such as “Passover 2000,” “Bar-Mitzvah 2000,” and a unifying Sefer-Torah project, as well as the establishment of the Federation of Georgian Jews (skokosher.com).

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Renowned worldwide as an expert mohel, mashgiach and kosher consultant, Rabbi Chein continues to train students, advise food producers on high-level kashrut, and serve communities from North America to the Caucasus. In 2018 he received Dayanut (rabbinical-judge) certification from Israeli Chief Dayan Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel, broadening his work with the Beit Din "Chok Nathan" (skokosher.com).

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Today Rabbi Aharon Chein’s blend of Georgian warmth, Chabad outreach, and rigorous Torah scholarship makes him a pivotal bridge between immigrant tradition and American Jewish life—celebrated both within the Georgian enclave of New York and across the global kosher world.