Yeshivat Sha'alvim

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Yeshivat Sha'alvim is a hesder yeshiva located near Kibbutz Sha'alvim.

[edit] History

Yeshivat Sha'alvim was founded in 1961 by Rabbi Meir Schlesinger, the rabbi of Kibbutz Sha'alvim. The yeshiva, like the kibbutz, was originally affiliated with Poalei Agudat Israel ("Agudat Israel Workers"), whose ideology can be described as somewhere between that of Agudat Israel and that of the Mizrachi.

Rabbi Schlesinger served as the rosh yeshiva for over 30 years. For over 20 years, the highest class was taught by Rabbi Shimon Zelaznik, a student of Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer of Yeshivat Eitz Chaim in Jerusalem. A weekly lecture (shiur kelali) was delivered by Rabbi Yitzchak Dzimtrovski, one of the foremost students of Rabbi Shmuel Rozowski at Ponevezh yeshiva and rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Kol Yaakov in Jerusalem. The mashgiach was Rabbi Yitzchak Gittelman who had been a student of Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz at Mir yeshiva.

In the late 1970s and early-1980s many of the yeshiva's original rabbis began to retire and their positions were filled by graduates of the yeshiva and of other strictly Zionist yeshivas. This change coincided with the demise of the Poalei Agudat Israel movement and with the growing divide between the National Religious and Haredi movements in Israel. In the following years the yeshiva grew significantly and became the center of a large and flourishing educational campus which includes a kollel, a teachers college, a yeshiva high-school for boys, an ulpana high-school for girls, an elementary school and a talmud torah. In the early 1990's a National Religious yishuv named Nof Ayalon was built around the Sha'alvim educational campus. Over 400 families live in the yishuv including many graduates of the yeshiva.

Graduates of the yeshiva have founded two Hesder yeshivas in Karnei Shomron and in Sderot. In recent years the yeshiva has also opened a post-high school seminary for girls in Jerusalem.

Today, the yeshiva is headed by Rabbi Yechezkel Yaakovson and Rabbi Aryeh Hendler and the kollel is headed by Rabbi Gidon Binyamin, all graduates of the yeshiva. Other senior rabbis are Rabbi Moshe Ganz, a graduate of Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav and a close personal student of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, and Rabbi Yoel Amital, a graduate of Yeshivat Har Etzion and a close personal student of his father Rabbi Yehuda Amital.

[edit] Overseas program

Yeshivat Sha'alvim has a program for students from the United States and other countries. This program was headed for many years by Rabbi Mallen Galinsky and is headed today by Rabbi Ari Waxman. In recent years the program has grown significantly and over 100 students attend it annually.