Katana VentraIP

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas[1] is a yeshiva in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

History[edit]

The yeshiva was conceived in 1917 and formally opened in 1918, by Binyomin Wilhelm and Louis Dershowitz, to provide a yeshiva education to the children of families then moving from the Lower East Side to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The two friends and Rabbi Zev Gold of the local Congregation Beth Jacob Anshe Sholom[2][3] formed a board and established the yeshiva on Keap Street in Williamsburg as an elementary school. The yeshiva later moved to a new building at 206 Wilson Street and remained there until 1967, while he elementary school remained at 206 Wilson St. until 1974 when it moved to East 9th Street in Brooklyn. The school was named after a yeshiva founded in Lida in 1905 by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines, which combined secular studies with Jewish studies and traditional Talmud study.[4] During this period the yeshiva was modeled after those in Europe, with religious studies taught in Yiddish and Talmud taught in the style of the European yeshivas.[5]


Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz headed the yeshiva from 1922 to 1948. A mesivta (yeshiva high school) was opened in 1926[6]: 76  and later a yeshiva gedola. Rabbi Dovid Leibovitz, a torah scholar from Europe, headed the yeshiva's beit midrash (study hall) from 1929 but left after four years to start his own yeshiva (Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim) after personal conflicts with Mendlowitz. Two years later, in 1935, Rabbi Shlomo Heiman became rosh yeshiva (head of the yeshiva), a position he held until his death in 1944.[7]


After Mendlowitz died in 1948 rabbis Yaakov Kamenetzky and Refael Reuvain Grozovsky became roshei yeshiva.[8]


The yeshiva has since expanded to include a beit midrash in Monsey, an elementary school division in nearby Marine Park, and two summer camps. The student body from nursery to postgraduate kollel, numbered nearly 2,000 students in 2012.[9]

Philosophy[edit]

"Torah im Derech Eretz" historically influenced the yeshiva's philosophy,[10] but today it is strongly influenced by the Haredi philosophy. However, Torah Vodaath is one of the many major haredi yeshivas that allow its students to attend college while studying at the yeshiva. The great majority of the yeshiva's graduates go on to work in fields that are not related to the Torah education that they received in yeshiva.[11]

Republican political activist and fundraiser

Milton Balkany

Professor , Dead Sea Scrolls scholar

Joseph M. Baumgarten

Rabbi , American scholar and Modern Orthodox rabbi

Saul Berman

Rabbi Professor , Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University

Benjamin Blech

Rabbi , Rosh Yeshiva in Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University

J. David Bleich

Rabbi , composer, singer, spiritual leader, pioneer of the Baal teshuva movement

Shlomo Carlebach

(1953–2020), New York Supreme Court Judge

Noach Dear

Rabbi , Conservative rabbi

Zvi Dershowitz

politician and Chair of New York City Council's Land Use Committee from 2013-2017

David G. Greenfield

Rabbi , Rabbinical Supervisor , Star-K and Rav of Agudas Yisroel of Baltimore

Moshe Heinemann

Rabbi , the Bostoner Rebbe

Levi Yitzchak Horowitz

Rabbi , educator and child safety advocate

Yakov Horowitz

Rabbi , Rosh Yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia

Shmuel Kamenetsky

Rabbi , rabbi, Jewish thinker and author of over 40 works.

Aryeh Kaplan

Rabbi , rabbi, publisher of The Jewish Press

Sholom Klass

Professor historian of Rescue by Jews during the Holocaust

David Kranzler

Rabbi Dr. , rabbi, chancellor of Yeshiva University

Norman Lamm

Rabbi , rabbi, head of OK Labs

Bernard Levy

Rabbi , a Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey

Yerucham Olshin

Rabbi , later Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva (see above)

Avraham Yaakov Pam

Rabbi , later Menahel of the Yeshiva

Nesanel Quinn

Rabbi , today Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva, and Rabbi of Agudath Yisroel of Madison

Yisroel Reisman

Rabbi , chief rabbi of St. Louis, Missouri

Sholom Rivkin

Rabbi , Polish–American rabbi and educator associated with the Breslov Hasidic movement

Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld

Rabbi , Rosh Yeshiva of the Kamenitz yeshiva of Jerusalem

Yitzchok Scheiner

renowned Hasidic composer and hazzan

Ben Zion Shenker

Rabbi , rabbi, owner and general editor of Artscroll

Nosson Scherman

Rabbi , later Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva (see above)

Gedalia Schorr

(Chaim Witz), aka The Demon, co-founder of the rock band KISS

Gene Simmons

Rabbi , Rosh Yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia

Elya Svei

Rabbi , Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel

Yaakov Weinberg

Rabbi Dr. , recruited for the Yeshiva, founding Rabbi of the Great Neck Synagogue and the North Shore Hebrew Academy

Ephraim Wolf

Jewish philosopher and theologian

Michael Wyschogrod

Official website