Ohr Yerushalayim

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Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim (ישיבת אור ירושלים) is a Beit Midrash program for students from the United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries who wish to spend a year or more of intensive study in Israel. It is located on Moshav Beit Meir, a religious moshav (cooperative settlement) situated in the Judean hills, some nine miles from Jerusalem off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. The moshav is adjacent to a nature reserve, in an extremely scenic locale, which enjoys a panoramic view of the coastal plain and foothills, stretching all the way to the Mediterranean.

Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim is unaffiliated politically or philosophically with any political parties or formal religious movements. Its goal is to emphasize the primacy of high level Torah study and love of Klal Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

[edit] History

Beginning in 1980 as an affiliate of the Jewish Agency located in Kiryat Moshe, it began its first year as a full post high school yeshiva in Israel in 1984–1985. Initially the campus was located in Ramat Shapira before moving to its current location of Moshav Beit Meir.

One of the first American non-Hesder programs, the yeshiva grew from an initial 20 students to its present capacity of 150. The students come from a great range of yeshiva high schools located throughout the United States and Canada, joined by an occasional student from Europe and Australia. "When the yeshiva started, there was a tremendous sense of excitement," remembers Rav Sosevsky, the Rosh Yeshiva. "To this day that first group of students retains strong ties with the yeshiva and the rebeiim. All of them have been successful. They were a group that really gained tremendously while at the yeshiva and they have given much to others in their various communities."

Ohr Yerushalayim is located some ten miles from Yerushalayim, a few miles off the Shoeva-Shoresh exit. The moshav is a HaPoel HaMizrachi moshav of some 100 families in an extremely scenic location. The yeshiva’s alumni body, some 1200 students, has in many ways changed the American Jewish scene with many having taken positions as major Rabbanim and mechanchim, while many others have filled important lay leadership roles in their various communities. Over the years, the campus of Ohr Yerushalayim has expanded to the magnificent, sprawling, and very beautiful air-conditioned campus that it enjoys today. Over the past four years, the yeshiva has been privileged to host the NCSY Summer Kollel Program.

Ohr Yerushalayim is known for a demanding and high level program in an atmosphere of great warmth and a most personal touch. The Rebeiim are experienced and have spent many years learning and teaching in various yeshivot. The yeshiva offers various levels of shiurim from those advanced and proficient in learning to those students who need sharpening of their skills. There is also a mechina class for motivated students from a weaker background. No matter the levels, over the course of a year, a special relationship is developed between the students and their rebbe—one that continues long after the student has left the yeshiva. In addition, the camaraderie among the students grows eventually creating friendships for life.

The yeshiva greatly encourages students to think in terms of leadership and communal responsibility and actually offers Leadership Training Seminars for interested students. It also has set a unique intellectual tone through the publication of Torah Journals and the journal Jewish Thought in the areas of parshanut and machshava which was published by the yeshiva in conjunction with the Orthodox Union. Ohr Yerushalayim has always sought to be innovative in both its curricular and extra-curricular dimension and has in many ways provided the model for many of the more recent post high school programs.