The story behind the Yeshivah Gedolah

The month of Shevat has particular significance for Chabad worldwide. Shevat 10 is the date in 1950 that saw the passing of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (known as the Frierdicker – i.e. previous – Rebbe). A year later Shevat 10 saw the accession of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to the leadership. However for the Australian community a particular significance is attached to Shevat 11 – the day after the date of those anniversaries.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand – the Yeshivah Gedolah, affectionately known by many simply as “YG”. Whilst a Sydney counterpart has had a chequered life, it is the only existing full-time boarding yeshivah in Australia. And whilst its most important achievement has been the education of its students, its impact over six decades since Shevat 11, 5726/1966, has been vast – reaching so much of the Australian Jewish community far beyond its Lubavitch community roots.

Without the YG would one be used to seeing young boys in hats and jackets all around the community? Who has not seen students and graduates out on the tefillin campaign trail? Who has not participated in a major Chanukah event where current students or graduates who have gone on to bigger communal postings play a major part in its organisation and running?
And how many isolated Jews in country towns across the continent have not seen any Jewish life for years or even decades – except for the yeshivah boys who visit them through the auspices of Chabad of RARA. And how many who studied at YG where they were inspired to further communal work, have become rabbis in mainstream shules, educators in schools across the Australian community, workers in kashrut and otherwise communally involved.

The founding families of the Australian Chabad community landed here in 1949. Amongst them, hosted by Reb Moshe Zalman Feiglin in Shepparton was Reb Zalman Serebryanski who together with Reb Abba Pliskin founded a yeshivah in Shepparton utilising the shule on the Feiglin property. It began on Cheshvan 18, 1949, with three students, expanded somewhat with more boys from Melbourne and Sydney, but in 1951 it moved to Burwood with the hope of capturing more students from the Melbourne community who would not travel to Shepparton to reside there.
However there too the realisation set in that there was much groundwork to be laid before the long-term aim of a real full time yeshivah could be achieved.

1954 saw the yeshivah move from Burwood to 92 Hotham Street, East St Kilda, where Reb Zalman began to operate a day school in addition to providing “after school cheder” classes for those who went to other schools in Melbourne. The late 1950s/early 1960s once again saw a full-time Jewish studies class (the “Kol Hayom”) taught by Reb Eliezer Herzog – himself formerly a Shepparton yeshivah student – but the intent and aim were always clear. The school originally directed by Reb Zalman who would continue as a teacher even as Rabbi Groner came to the school as teacher and then head, was a stepping stone to the ultimate achievement – a full time yeshivah once the first graduates of Yeshivah College had matriculated, which took place at the end of 1965.

And so the commencement of the 1966 academic year saw the Yeshivah Gedolah open its doors. This was no easy achievement. Many in the community felt that after school boys should move to university; even many of those in favour of some higher Jewish study felt that the boys should go overseas rather than study here. And even within the local Chabad community there was a fear that financially those promoting the yeshivah were unrealistic and even endangering the achievement so far – thriving boys’ and girls’ schools. Such attitudes were a repeat of those expressed on previous occasions – expansion of activity beyond then existing institutions was viewed as beyond reality and communal capability.

With Reb Zalman as principal, Rabbi Chaim Gutnick as dean and Reb Eliezer Herzog as effective Rosh Yeshivah teaching on a day-to-day basis, the first six students commenced their studies in a house in Goathlands Street owned by Mendel and Assia New. They were soon joined by students from Sydney. A brief move to Wilgah Street was soon followed by acquisition of a mansion in Meadow Street – which however was only allowed by council to be used as a dormitory, not as a study centre.

At that stage therefore the boys had to trudge to Hotham Street and carry out studies there. But finally the end of 1970 saw acquisition of what was then a reception facility set in spacious grounds – the New Alexandra Gardens – which has remained the YG location ever since. The original reception building has remained in place to this day – but subject of course to significant renovation and expansion. In particular, 2022 saw completion of the Tatarka wing named after philanthropist Ronnie Tatarka, incorporating an expanded study hall, more dormitory accommodation, a shiur room and
new offices.

However 1967 saw another initiative come to fruition that would become a tradition that continues to this day. With the blessing and encouragement of the Rebbe, six advanced American boys were sent as shluchim for two years at a time to assist in teaching while continuing their own studies and to commence outreach across the broader community of Melbourne and the rest of Australia.

Reb Eliezer Herzog moved to the United States taking up a position at the Nitra Yeshivah and for a while the American boys assisted Reb Zalman by carrying the main teaching load. Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky briefly served as a mashgiach but in 1974 Rabbi Binyomin Cohen, formerly a teacher at Hadar HaTorah in New York, was appointed as Rosh Yeshivah – a position he has maintained since. Ten years later, 1984 saw former student Rabbi Mordechai Szmerling also join the faculty; in 1989 he was joined by Rabbi Yaakov Winner who assumed the position of mashpia (spiritual mentor) and lecturer in Chassidic study. More recently Rabbi Shmuel Lesches joined as maggid shiur (lecturer) subsequently taking a more senior role in conjunction with Rabbi Cohen. Rabbi Yosef Dov Schneier also joined the staff as mashpia. Rabbi Sholom Ber Engel served as mashgiach. Rabbi Feitel Levin led the Semichah program. In 1977, with the retirement of Reb Zalman from active involvement, another former student, Avrohom Procel, was appointed as administrator, later assisted by Mordechai Joseph.

Of course, no initiative of this nature could have come to fruition without the constant encouragement and blessing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. As had been his practice throughout the previous 16 years of his work in Australia, Reb Zalman consulted with the Rebbe on every aspect of his work in setting up the YG and advised him of every development. The Rebbe showed a particular concern for Australia that was felt in so many ways over decades. And so I conclude with the Rebbe’s words on Kislev 19, 5731/1970 further to purchase of the Alexandra Street property.

“The windows [of the Yeshivah Gedolah] should be ‘shkufim atumim’. [Note: The windows in the Beit Hamikdash were designed shkufim atumim – they were narrow on the inside and wider on the outside. Normally, windows are designed to maximise the amount of light entering the home. Therefore, in a home with thick walls, the windows were narrow on the outside and wide on the inside. In the Temple, the windows were reversed. They were built not to bring light inside, but to radiate out the spiritual glow of the Temple.]
“And so, based on that model, from this yeshivah the light of Torah should go out over all the city of Melbourne, and from there over all the edges of Australia, so as to make Australia a place of Torah, and in a way that learning brings to practical actions, fulfilment of mitzvot – indeed fulfilment of mitzvot behiddur – in the most beautified manner.”

Shabbat shalom,
Yossi

Yossi Aron OAM is The AJN’s 
religious affairs editor.