Yeshivah Centre, Sydney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the organisation of this name in Sydney. For its counterpart in Melbourne, see Yeshivah Centre, Melbourne.
The Yeshiva Centre was established in 1956 by Rabbi Chaim Gutnick and Mr. Abraham Rabinovitch, along with a few others, as a synagogue and centre of learning for the New South Wales, Australian Jewish community. The leaders from 1956 to 1968 were Rabbi G. Herc and Rabbi C. E. Barzel. In 1968 Rabbi Pinchus Feldman accepted leadership of the Yeshiva Centre.
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[edit] Activities
Yeshiva Centre runs Jewish programs throughout the year for the New South Wales Jewish community, such as Hanukkah parades, model matzah bakeries, shofar factories, sukkah mobiles, and learning programs.
[edit] Yeshiva Gedola - Rabbinical College of Sydney
The Yeshiva Gedola, like other Yeshiva Gedolahs is a centre for Jewish higher learning. It was officially established in 1986 by the Yeshiva Centre. It is part of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva network. The purpose of the Yeshiva is to promote Torah study and Mitzvah observance in the greater Sydney Jewish community. For this purpose students are recruited from other Yeshiva Gedolahs to study on a scholarship. On most years this scholarship has been full, but on some years it has been necessary to have it complemented by community service in other synagogues in order to enable the Yeshiva Gedola to remain financially stable.
Rabbi Boruch Lesches served as its Rosh Yeshiva and Mashpia for almost twenty years. (He has since left Sydney, and is currently serving as the rabbi of the Chabad-Lubavitch shul in Monsey, which also contains a Yeshiva that is part of the Tomchei Temimim network.)
This institution has also trained over 500 rabbis with rabbinic ordination, many of whom went on to take up positions and provide pastoral care to Jews worldwide. This branch of the Yeshiva Gedolah is administrated by Rabbi Yossi Feldman, son of Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, who is also currently the Rosh Yeshiva of the entire Yeshiva Gedolah -- both those studying for rabbinic ordination and those not studying specifically for that purpose.
[edit] Yeshiva College
Yeshiva College was a Jewish day school, established by Yeshiva Centre in 1956. From 1968 to 2003 it was administered by Rabbi Pinchus Feldman. Throughout most of this period, its main campus was located on Flood Street in Bondi. In the 1990s, a new campus in Dover Heights was bought by Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, to allow the school to expand.
After tremendous financial woes, in late 2003 the Feldman family handed over the Dover Heights campus, students, staff, and debt to Meir Moss for AU$1, forming Kesser Torah, a school independent from the Yeshiva Centre.
[edit] Cheder Chabad Lubavitch
Cheder Chabad Lubavitch is a Jewish educational program for home-schooled children in Sydney, Australia. It was started in 2004 by the Yeshiva Centre with the support of the Feldman family. The main aim of the program is to give boys a thorough Jewish education for most of the day, allowing them to focus primarily on this pursuit, and then giving them time in the late afternoons to fulfil the NSW government homeschooling requirements for secular studies. The parent body are mostly Rabbis and Lubavitcher Shluchim.
It is currently located on Flood Street next door to the Yeshiva Shule. As of 2007, it has about sixty students, and it covers several academic grades. The younger classes learn Chumash in Yiddish, all the classes have Yiddish lessons and they learn Jewish law, a variety of Hassidic texts and other classical texts in the original Hebrew (or Yiddish).
[edit] External links
- Chabad of Sydney
- Webpage on Chabad.org
- Australian-Prime-Minister-Rudd-Salutes-Chabad-and-Pledges-Support-for-Jewish-Schools
[edit] Further reading
- Chai today. Bondi, N.S.W. : Yeshiva Centre, Premier issue (Apr. 1990)
