Hebron Yeshiva

The Hebron Yeshiva, Knesses Yisrael, 1911.

Hebron Yeshiva, also known as Yeshivas Hevron, or Knesses Yisroel, is a yeshiva devoted to high-level study of the Talmud. It originated in 1924 when the roshei yeshiva and 150 students of the Slabodka Yeshiva, known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas", relocated to Hebron.

Relocation of Slabodka Yeshiva to Palestine

The Alter of Slabodka surrounded by students in Hebron.

A 1924 edict requiring enlistment in the military or supplementary secular studies in the yeshiva led a large number of students in the Slabodka yeshiva to relocate to Palestine. Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, also known as "Der Alter fun Slabodka" (The Elder of Slabodka), sent Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski to head this group and establish the yeshiva in Hebron.^[1] Upon Grodzinski's return to Slabodka, the Alter transferred the mashgiach ruchani responsibilities to him, and the rosh yeshiva duties to Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher and himself and moved to Hebron to lead the yeshiva there.^[2] Hebron was chosen over Jerusalem to avoid the influence of the Conservative Old Yishuv. The Slabodka yeshiva ceased operation during the Holocaust. A branch was also established in Bnei Brak.

1929 Hebron massacre and relocation to Jerusalem

Hebron yeshiva students, circa 1920s. All but one of these students perished in the pogrom.

Twenty-four students were murdered in the 1929 Hebron massacre, and the yeshiva was re-established in the Geula neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Despite a delay after the death of Rabbi Moshe Hebroni, the last of the previous generation, the yeshiva moved into a new and larger campus in the south-central Givat Mordechai neighbourhood in 1975. This yeshiva today has about 1300 students and is one of the most prestigious and influential Lithuanian yeshivohs in Israel. The current roshei yeshiva are Rabbi Dovid Cohen^[3] and Rabbi Yosef Chevroni.

Prominent alumni

Geula branch of the Hebron yeshiva.

Meyer Abovitz, av beis din in Russia
Yehezkel Abramsky, av beis din, London Beth Din
Yehuda Amital, rosh yeshiva, Yeshivat Har Etzion
Zvi Block, Talmudic instructor, Mir yeshiva (Brooklyn)
Menachem Elon, the former Deputy Chief Israeli Supreme Court
Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, rosh yeshiva, Yeshiva Ateres Yisrael, Jerusalem
Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
Yitzchok Hutner, rosh yeshiva, Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
Shneur Kotler, rosh yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha
Sholom Schwadron, Haredi rabbi and maggid
Dov Schwartzman, rosh yeshiva, Yeshivas Beis HaTalmud
Avraham Shapira, rosh yeshiva, Mercaz HaRav
Yitzhak Yosef, Sepharadi Chief Rabbi of Israel

References

↑ See Toras Avraham page 13
↑ Toras Avraham page 13
↑ Hamodia. July 10, 2013. p. A25. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

Yeshiva of Slobodka, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe