Yeshiva Toras Chaim (YTC) [1] [2] is an all-male, [3] Lithuanian (Litvish)-style Talmudic academy in the West Colfax neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. YTC was founded in Denver in 1967. It is headed by the Roshei Yeshiva, Rav Yisroel Meir Kagan, [4] and Rav Yitzchok Wasserman, both students of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey.
The student body is multi-state, including pupils from the East Coast. [5]
In 1966, a group of community leaders headed by Mr. Sheldon K. Beren [5] approached Beth Medrash Govoha's Dov Lesser to discuss potential leadership for the yeshiva. Lesser mentioned the prospect to Rabbi Yitzchok Wasserman, who was teaching in a bais medrash in Boston at the time. Though Rabbi Wasserman was initially hesitant to leave his Boston position, Mr. Beren convinced him, along with fellow Beth Medrash Govoha talmid Rabbi Chaim Kahn, to come to Denver. When Rabbis Wasserman and Kahn realized how much time and energy went into recruiting and fundraising, they felt that the importance of having a full-time presence in the bais medrash was crucial enough to warrant the inclusion of another yeshiva head. Rabbi Wasserman's childhood friend, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who was giving chaburas in BMG, was recruited for the job. The yeshiva opened its doors to students in the fall of 1967.
Due to the yeshiva's unique location (at the time of its founding, YTC was one of the rare full-time yeshivas not located on the east coast, described by a local newspaper as "the only yeshiva between Chicago and the West Coast") [4] the students were initially mainly from Denver and other western cities. Seattle, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Vancouver, British Columbia and several other cities were represented, along with bochurim from New York City, New Jersey, Baltimore and other east coast communities.
The yeshiva provides a full high school program (grades 9–12), a bais-medrash undergraduate program for post-high school bochurim or students, [4] and a chabura or religious study group for married men ( kollel yungeleit). Students lodge in the yeshiva's dormitory facilities, [6] connected to the main yeshiva building.
The yeshiva is one of less than fifty private schools [7] in the US that offer college-level education—out of a total of more than 2600 [8] —that refuse to accept federal funds (so-called Title IV financial aid, from the Higher Education Act of 1965). Most if not all other such schools are conservative Christian colleges. By rejecting federal funding, which includes financial aid for students, the yeshiva is not required to adhere to federal guidelines other universities do, including guidelines related to discrimination, investigations of accusations of sexual abuse, and the reporting of on-campus crimes. [9]
In particular, "can get exemptions if they can show they are controlled by religious organizations with whose beliefs Title IX requirements conflict." [9]
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YTC is responsible for spearheading many of the successful Community Outreach ( kiruv ) programs in Denver. Yeshiva staff members were giving informal classes in homes on Denver's East Side before 1983, when YTC responded to the needs of the community by becoming the first yeshiva in the United States to employ a full-time kiruv professional. In 1986, Rabbi and Mrs. Wasserman traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they taught Torah and spent Shabbos in an effort to raise Jewish awareness in the Southwest.
Today, Rabbi Yaakov Meyer, the yeshiva's original outreach director, leads a flourishing Aish HaTorah community in Southeast Denver. Rabbi Aaron Y. Wasserman, son of Rabbi Yitzchok Wasserman, heads The Jewish Experience, a multifaceted outreach project in Denver which provides classes, a Sunday school, Shabbatonim in the Rocky Mountains, and many other programs that appeal to a wide variety of Jews.
Yeshivah Toras Chaim also has an active “inreach” program. Merkaz Torah V'Chesed, located in East Denver, serves as a nightly beis medrash open to the community. Merkaz provides a high-level shiur given by its rabbinical director, Rabbi Aver Jacobs, along with chavrusa learning, regular classes and other events organized by program director Rabbi Chaim Sher, an alumnus of Beth Medrash Govoha. Merkaz's regular programming includes women's classes, youth programming, Rabbi Yissocher Frand's weekly parsha shiur (via the Torah Conferencing Network) and annual teshuva drasha, Chol Hamoed sedarim, and an annual Chanukah chagiga.
A yeshiva is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha, while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The studying is usually done through daily shiurim as well as in study pairs called chavrusas. Chavrusa-style learning is one of the unique features of the yeshiva.
Aharon Kotler was an Ashkenazi Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania and the United States; the latter being where he founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin is an American Haredi Lithuanian-type boys' and men's yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York.
Ner Israel Rabbinical College, also known as NIRC and Ner Yisroel, is a Haredi yeshiva in Pikesville, Maryland. It was founded in 1933 by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, dean of the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania. It is currently headed by Rabbi Aharon Feldman, a disciple of Rabbi Ruderman and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America.
Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi from the Lithuanian movement and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey from 1962 to 1982. During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian-style, Haredi but non-Hasidic yeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world. He also established Lakewood-style kollels in 30 cities, and pioneered the establishment of community kollels in which Torah scholars study during the morning and afternoon hours and engage in community outreach during the evenings. Upon his death, he had served as the Lakewood rosh yeshiva for exactly the same amount of time as had his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the founding rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha: nineteen years, seven months, and one day.
Aryeh Malkiel Kotler is a Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, one of the largest yeshivas in the world. He is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America.
Rabbi Berel Soloveichik (1915–1981) was a rabbi and the son of Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveichik and one of the leading Rosh Yeshivas of the Brisk yeshivas in Jerusalem. He was a first cousin to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who was named after the Beis HaLevi, like himself. Rabbi Soloveichik was succeeded as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Jerusalem by his son Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Soloveichik.
Beth Hatalmud Rabbinical College, or in short known as Bais Hatalmud, is a Rabbinical college located in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York.
Beth Medrash Govoha is a Haredi Jewish Lithuanian yeshiva in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. It was founded by Rabbi Aaron Kotler in 1943 and is the second-largest yeshiva in the world, after Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. As of 2019, it had 6,715 students, 2,748 regular and 3,967 in Kollel status. The principal Rosh yeshiva since 1982 is Rabbi Malkiel Kotler. Talmud and halakha studies in the institution are carried in the form of over 200 small groups, Chaburos, which consist of several students mentored by a veteran, each pursuing its own specific curriculum with an emphasis on individual learning.
Yeshiva Gedola of Passaic is an advanced yeshiva in the Passaic Park neighborhood of Passaic, New Jersey catering to post-high-school-age men. Founded in 1973 by Rabbis Chaim Davis and Gershon Weisenfeld, and further developed by Rabbi Meir Stern who replaced Rabbi Wiesenfeld when the latter became ill before the yeshiva's opening, it developed into one of the leading yeshiva gedolas in the United States and revitalized the small Orthodox community of Passaic.
Yeshiva Gedola and Mesivta of Carteret informally, "YGOC", also called Yeshiva Tiferes Yehuda Aryeh, is a yeshiva and non-profit organization located in Carteret in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States.
Dov Schwartzman, also called Berel Schwartzman, was a Russian-born American Haredi Jewish rabbi, educator, Talmudic scholar, and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Bais Hatalmud, which he founded in the Sanhedria Murhevet neighborhood of Jerusalem and led for over 40 years. He also founded and led the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia together with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, and co-founded the first yeshiva in Israel for baalei teshuva. He taught tens of thousands of students, many of whom received semicha from him.
Chona Menachem Mendel (Mendel) Weinbach was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, educator, author, and speaker. As the co-founder and dean of Ohr Somayach Institutions, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva for newly-observant Jewish men, he was considered one of the fathers of the modern-day baal teshuva movement.
The Talmudical Academy of Baltimore or TA is a K–12 yeshiva founded in 1917. Its present campus, located at 4445 Old Court Road, includes a pre-school building, an elementary school building, a middle school building, a high school building, three gymnasiums, a dormitory, two computer labs, and two study halls which double as prayer sanctuaries.
Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, known as the Lakewood Mashgiach, was an Orthodox rabbi and long-time mashgiach ruchani of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. He was one of the primary builders of that yeshiva into a world-class institution, enacting the goals and direction set forth by its founding rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Kotler. He also helped establish "branches" of the Lakewood Yeshiva in dozens of cities, and pioneered the community kollel concept with the opening of combination Torah learning/outreach centers in the United States and other countries. A revered mentor and guide to thousands of students over a career that spanned more than 50 years, he was a strong advocate and prime example of musar study and working on one's spiritual self-development.
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Yeshiva Toras Chaim High School
students from far beyond Colorado
