The Old Yishuv (Hebrew: היישוב הישן‎, ha-Yishuv ha-Yashan) refers to the Jewish community that lived in the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) or Palestine from the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE to the First Aliyah in 1881–82, prior to the onset of Zionist immigration.

The Old Yishuv was composed primarily of three elements: the Musta'arabim (indigenous Jews who had never left the land), the Sephardim (Jews with an extended history in Spain and Portugal, mostly expelled in 1492, and those descended from these) and the Ashkenazim (Jews with an extended history in Germany, and those descended from these).

The Old Yishuv dwelled mainly in the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron. Smaller communities also existed in Jaffa, Haifa, Peki'in, Acre, Shechem, Shfaram and until 1779, in Gaza. Petah Tikva, although established in 1878 by the Old Yishuv, nevertheless was also supported by the arriving Zionists. Rishon LeZion, the first settlement founded by the Hovevei Zion in 1882, could be considered the true beginning of the New Yishuv.

Berel Wein is an American-born Orthodox rabbi, scholar, lecturer, and writer. He is regarded as an expert on Jewish history and has popularized the subject through more than 1,000 audio tapes, a four-volume book series, newspaper articles and international lectures. Throughout his career, he has retained personal and ideological ties to both Modern Orthodox and Haredi Judaism.

Rabbi Wein was born March 25, 1934 in Chicago to a family descended from Lithuanian rabbis. His father, Zev, emigrated to the United States and served as a Rabbi in Chicago until the 1970s.

Wein received semicha (rabbinic ordination) from Hebrew Theological College, which was founded by his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Rubinstein. His main teacher was Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth and his personal mentors there included Rabbis Mordechai Rogow and Yisrael Mendel Kaplan. He was a student of the late Rabbi Oscar Z. Fasman in Chicago, and spoke at the latter's funeral [1].

He received a Bachelor's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and earned a law degree from De Paul University. After passing the Illinois Bar he practiced as an attorney in Chicago for a number of years.