Hebrew Institute of Riverdale is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Riverdale, Bronx neighborhood of New York City. Rabbi Avi Weiss has led the congregation since 1973.[1]
The congregation is known for its outreach programs, adult education programs, leadership in the area of women’s participation in prayer and Torah study, and for activism in the campaign to free Soviet Jewry and in defense of Israel.[1][2] The Jerusalem Post has called the Hebrew Institute “a training ground for young Modern Orthodox rabbis who go on to take over congregations of their own.”[3]
The congregation was founded in 1971 by thirty-five families, former members of the Hebrew Institute synagogue in University Heights, Bronx who had moved to Riverdale. The congregation met at the Whitehall apartment building in the early years, before construction a permanent building in 1980.[1]