Ponevezh Yeshiva, often pronounced as Ponevitch Yeshiva (Hebrew: ישיבת פוניבז׳), is a yeshiva founded in 1908, and located in Bnei Brak, Israel since 1944. The yeshiva has over three thousand students, including those of affiliated institutions, and is considered one of the leading Litvish yeshivas in Israel.
History[edit]
Founded in 1908, the yeshiva was originally located in city of Panevėžys (Ponevezh), Lithuania prior to the Holocaust.[1] After the death of its founder, Rabbi Yitzhak Yaakov Rabinovich, the yeshiva was re-established in Bnei Brak in 1944 by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, who was residing in British Mandate of Palestine at the time.[2][3] Kahaneman appointed Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky as dean, and some years later appointed Rabbi Dovid Povarsky as rosh yeshiva.
The Kahaneman faction of the yeshiva is led by Rabbi Gershon Eidelstein and Rabbi Berel Povarsky, son of Rabbi Dovid Povarsky, and Rabbi Chaim Peretz Berman, a grandson of The Steipler, and a son-in-law of Rabbi Kahanaman. The Markovitz faction of the yeshiva is led by Rabbi Shmuel Markovitz, Rabbi Asher Deutch, and Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler.
The main study hall has an original 16th-century Italian wooden aron kodesh (Torah scroll ark), brought to the yeshiva in the early 1980s, and restored and re-gilded with 22 carat gild leaf.
The aron Kodesh (Torah scroll ark)
Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, second rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Ponevezh
Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, second rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Ponevezh
Rabbi Steinman with students of Little Yeshiva Ponevezh on Purim, 1960
Video from the Yeshiva in 1960
Controversy[edit]
During the 1990s, leadership of the yeshiva was the subject of a public disagreement between two of its leaders. Since then, the yeshiva has split and resulted in two yeshivas in the same building, with the students occupying different dormitories, though studying in the same learning hall and eating in the same dining room.
Notable teachers[edit]
- Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, founder and rosh yeshiva in Lithuania and Israel
- Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953), mashgiach ruchani, author of the Michtav me-Eliyahu
- Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein (1895–1974), mashgiach ruchani, author of Or Yechezkel
- Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky, rosh yeshiva
- Rabbi Dovid Povarsky, rosh yeshiva
- Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, rosh yeshiva
- Rabbi Chaim Friedlander, mashgiach
- Rabbi Chaim Shloime Leibovitch (1931–2016), rosh yeshiva
- Rabbi Baruch Dov Povarsky, commonly called R' Berel, rosh yeshiva
- Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, rosh yeshiva and spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah political party in Israel
- Rabbi Avraham Kahaneman, nasi (president), died in 2009
- Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman, nasi (president)
Notable alumni[edit]
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt
Rabbi Meir Kessler
Rabbi Dov Landau, Mashgiach of Slabodka
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Israel
Rabbi Yoel Schwartz
Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Ulman
- Rabbi Mordechai Yonah Aderet, marah diasrah in Congregation Bet Eliyahu in Great Neck, New York
- Rabbi Aharon Bina, rosh yeshiva of Netiv Aryeh
- Rabbi Baruch Shmuel Deutch, teacher at Yeshivat Kol Torah
- Rabbi Yitzchak Dzimtrovski, maggid shiur in Yeshivat Sha'alvim and Yeshivat Kol Yaakov
- Rabbi Yehoshua Erenberg, the rosh yeshiva of Kneses Yitzchok in Hadera and Kiryat Sefer
- Rabbi Menachem Gelley
- Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt
- Rabbi Shraga Feivish Hager, Kosover Rebbe
- Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Halperin, Chief Officer of Medical Ethics for the Israeli Ministry of Health, director of the Dr. Falk Schlesinger Institute
- Rabbi Yitzchok Halberstadt, former deputy mayor of Bnei Brak, co-founder of Rav Wolf Seminary
- Rabbi Meir Kessler
- Rabbi Efraim Kirschenbaum, rabbi of Pnei Shmeul, Ramat Beit Shemesh
- Rabbi Dovid Kraus, Senior Talmudical Lecturer in Gateshead, England
- Rabbi Dov Landau
- Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
- Rabbi Binyomin Moskovitz, rosh yeshiva of Midrash Shmuel Yeshiva
- Rabbi Yaakov Peretz, rosh yeshiva of Midrash Sepharadi
- Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, Torah scholar and author, senior lecturer at Yeshiva Dvar Yerushalayim
- Rabbi Dovid Stefansky, rosh yeshiva of Kol Yaakov Torah Center
- Rabbi Nissim Toledano, rosh yeshiva of Sheerit Yossef in Be'er Ya'akov
- Rabbi Yaacov Toledano, rosh yeshiva of Chazon Baroukh in France
- Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Ulman, rabbi of Ner Yisroel in Jerusalem, member of Jerusalem's Edah HaChareidis
- Rabbi Shmuel Arieh Levin, rosh yeshiva of Chafetz Chaim, and leader of the Ashkenazi kehila in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Rabbi Naftoli Meiselman, Maggid Shiur in Yeshivas Toras Moshe
Affiliated institutions[edit]
- Kollel Avreichim — located on the grounds of the yeshiva in the Ohel Kedoshim building; intended for married students who have graduated from the yeshiva.
- Yeshivat Ponevezh Le'zeirim — a division for 200 high school students headed by Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, and was formerly co-headed by Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman.
- Batei Avot — sheltered accommodation established by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman for children rescued from the holocaust, orphans and children from broken homes donated by Henry Krausher.
- Grodno Yeshiva - Beer Yaakov — an additional yeshiva located in Beer Yaakov.
- Grodno Yeshiva - Ashdod, also known as Ponevezh Ashdod — an additional yeshiva located in Ashdod.
References[edit]
- ^ "YIVO | Ponevezh, Yeshiva of". www.yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ "YIVO | Rabinovich, Yitsḥak Ya'akov". www.yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
- ^ "YIVO | Kahaneman, Yosef Shelomoh". www.yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
External links[edit]
Coordinates: 32°4′59.49″N 34°49′58.09″E / 32.0831917°N 34.8328028°E