Growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, David Aronin attended public school as a boy since the day school only began after he was too old for it. When it came time for high school, David, along with other Milwaukee families, was encouraged to go away to Skokie by the Twerski family in Milwaukee. After spending four years in the Yeshiva, David graduated in 1969 with the largest graduating class in Yeshiva history. From there, he attended the University of Wisconsin for three years, followed by Tel Aviv University for a year. After graduating with his accounting degree, David returned to the familiar city of Chicago and later relocated to Skokie, where he lives today with his wife. Together, they have four children, both of their sons having attended both FYHS and HTC. Today, David works as an accountant at Hunter Management LLC, where he has worked for the past 25 years.
Aside from his official position, David has dedicated a considerable amount of his time to participating on the boards of various institutions. While his children were growing up, David was the chairman and president of the board at Arie Crown Hebrew Day School, a board member of Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov, and on the board of the ATT. David served as the chairman of the HTC board for many years and he still holds a position on the Yeshiva board today. Part of the reason David cites as motivating him to be a member of the board of the Yeshiva for all these years has been his appreciation for the time he spent in Skokie. “It formed me and I have great hakaras hatov,” he said. “That’s why I support the Yeshiva. I had actually found my grandfather’s will. He passed away in 1951, the year I was born. In his will, he gave money to the Hebrew Theological College. I had asked my parents why and they said it was the only higher education institution within 200 miles of where he grew up, so he wanted to contribute to it. Our family has a major history with the Yeshiva. Over the years, I’ve recommended Skokie to various people; the Yeshiva means something to me. Education is so important.”
In addition to the education it gave him, David looks back on his time at Skokie as something that still impacts him to this day. “The Yeshiva 100% led me to where I am today. It had a tremendous influence on me. I had amazing rebbeim. Rabbi Eichenstein was my freshman year rebbe and, until a couple of years ago, he was my posek! Rabbi Sender was my sophomore and junior rebbe and I used to buy my lulav and esrog from him. Senior year I had Rabbi Gotleib, who was a genius. His son-in-law Joey Stern and I have a close kesher. And to this day I still think about Rabbi Soloveitchik who was my rosh yeshiva from my sophomore year until I graduated. We graduated 68 students,” said David, “ and today, over 50 years later, I talk to about 15 or 20 of them somewhat regularly. Some still live in Skokie so I’ll see them at minyan and some I make an effort to call on a regular basis. It connected me to a lot of people who I still have strong connections with today.”