Yeshivas Itri (Hebrew: ישיבת איתרי) is an Orthodoxyeshiva in southeast Jerusalem. Founded in 1968 by Rabbi Mordechai Elefant, the yeshiva has several branches in Israel and the United States, and spawned several educational programs for Diaspora Jews.
The name of the yeshiva is an acronym for Israel Torah Research Institute,[1]. From its founding, the yeshiva was officially called Yeshivas Midrash HaTalmud Tiferes Avraham – Itri (Yeshiva for the Study of the Talmud, Glory of Abraham – Itri). After the death of Elefant, its founder, in 2009, the name was changed to Yeshivas Midrash HaTalmud Zehav Mordechai – Itri (Yeshiva for the Study of the Talmud, Gold of Mordechai – Itri).
Yeshivas Itri was founded in 1968 by Elefant, an American-born educator who was a close student of Rabbis Aharon Kotler, Aryeh Leib Malin and Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik.[2] He married the granddaughter of Yaakov Yosef Herman.[2] The initial student body comprised 60 kollel students,[2] but enrollment soon expanded with unmarried yeshiva students. The yeshiva met for several years in the Orient House hotel in East Jerusalem. Elefant moved it to the premises of an old British Mandate hospital in the southeast of the city, near the Arab village of Beit Safafa, in the 1970s. Students were housed in adjacent apartments.[2]
By 1971, enrollment was at 250 students, the majority from the United States.[3] The yeshiva received funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,[3] government sources, and private donations.[4]
In 1999 yeshiva administrator Rabbi Chaim Weiss and businessman David Appel were suspected of embezzling NIS 9 million from yeshiva coffers during Elefant's medical leave.[4][5][6] The police investigation carried on for years; by 2014, police theorized that the stolen money was meant to pay for the defense of Aryeh Deri,[7] who was convicted on charges of fraud and bribery in 2000.[8]
Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah, founded in 1974 in Queens, New York as a branch of Yeshivas Itri by Rabbis Kalman Epstein and Sholom Spitz.
Shvut Ami Center for Russian Jews, founded in 1976 as a branch of Yeshivas Itri by Shimon Grilius, a former Prisoner of Zion; it later became an independent program.[10]
Bruria (later Shappell's women's college), founded in 1976 by Rabbi Chaim Brovender as a spinoff of Yeshivas Itri's women's program.[9][11]
Shapell's/Darche Noam (originally known as Hartman's), was a spinoff of the Yeshivas Itri program for English-speaking men.[9]
Elefant founded the Kiryat Itri neighborhood in northern Jerusalem in 1967, the year before he established the yeshiva.[2] This Orthodox Jewish housing development, adjacent to Kiryat Mattersdorf and designed for 250 families,[17] was undertaken in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel[18] to encourage American Jewish immigration to Israel.[19] Rabbi Nathan Kamenetsky, an instructor at Yeshivas Itri, lived in Kiryat Itri with his family.[19][20]
^Zvielli, Alexander (25 November 2014). "From Our Archives". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
^Eldor, Rafael (7 September 1969). "אלפי עולים דתיים מארה"ב יבואו להתיישב בקריות הדתיות" [Thousands of Religious Immigrants from the United States Come to Settle in Religious Townships]. Maariv (in Hebrew). p. 17. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
^ abGoldstein, Dov (30 August 1968). "הרב אלפנט ו'העולים שלו'" [Rabbi Elefant and 'His Immigrants']. Maariv (in Hebrew). p. 15. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
