The Denver Jewish news., 1924-01-31
The Yeshiva---W What
Is 1t?
BY HAROLD RER,LAN

lnere Is HI 'hs'' -
in the annals of Jewish history on the
American continent. / am referring 10
rhe Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary. an institution for higher
Jewish earning-commonly referred to
as the Yeshiva.
A teshiva is not, rs a matter or
course. new creation. or phenomenon
in the history of the Jew. The Seshivi
dates back 10 the very beginning of our
Diaspora. or. at the very least, not
much later than that fatal day over
nineteen centuries ago; that is practi-
cally before the dawn of the present
European civilization and the develop
ment of the political and social lie
umng its people, the Jews boasted of
great Yeshivoth in Palestine and Baby
Ion or Mesoppotamia.
These academies We're the homes or
Jewish learning in their day, the dis
seminators Of knowledge among the
scattered members of the Jewish race
whatever land they We're domiciled in,
or amongst whatever barbarous or civil
lized people they happened to dwell
amidst. These Yeshivoth were the
cradles Of Jewish lore and sacred stu
dies, the clearinghouse for the inter-
change of the Jewish thought as well as
the matrx wherein the Talmud as we
know il was finally shaped and brought
into being.
The legend tells-and that there is
much of actual truth in the legend, we
can readily surmisc-that three Jewish
sagcs carried folies of the Talmud. at
great personal hazard to themselves.
on the long and tedious journey into
Spain in which land there was at the
time. and had been for some time pre-
vionsly. a considerable Jewish settle
ment. which ultimately led to the cs-
Establishment of the famous YcShivOth
in Spain and Provence. From these
lands the Talmudical Academies spread
10 Germany and to Poland. where these
lighthouses hearing the light that
shone brightly all through the dark
ages OF persecution and suffering.
points the way to knowledge, righteous
living and cnlightment. These Yeshi-
voth were the vertlant and refreshing
cases i'm the midst of dfear seas of igno-
rance and persecution with which the
Jews in all lands were surrounded in
all Christendom.
If such institutions as the Yeshiva
were more or less commonplace in
Eastern Europe lin Western Europe
these schools have long since given way
to the secular school that the Jew
shares alike with the nOn-Jew). in
America they are indeed an entirely
new phenomenon. They are most re-
cent creation; the creation Of few
idealistic and far-Sighted men imbued
with an unquenchable love for Jewish
learning and the holy desire fer its per-
petuntion in this land that Is bound to
become the future home of Jewry and
already boasts the sccond-largcst Jew
ish population in the world.
In speaking of the Yeshiva and kind
red Institutions. centers of Torah which
it is hoped to establish in the near
future in the important Jewish centers
IF population in America-it should be
born in mind that the Jewish settle
ment in America is yet young that the
heavy Immigration into this land began
only about forty years ago. and that it
was haplazard and boasted neither
order nor system. Our people fled in
panic from the prosecutions of the old
Russian Imperial government to "A land
that offered them safe haven and re-
fuge. In their old homes they left be-
hind them IA centuries-oid tradition of
culture and learning, an impregnated
communal life, bOasting schools and
scholars. men OF learning and piety.
great leaders and teachers, and they
came here to find n new home in land
that was stranger to all these tradi-
tions and influences. Here they found
"A virgin soil If ever there was one; a
soil in which the seed of Jewish learn
ing and Jewish pieiy had never as yet
thriven.
As was 10 he expected "A period of
chaos. II sad period marked by iSno-
rance of all that is dear and holy to the
Jew-a period of years threatening to
become permanent and indefinite-had
to pass ere an earnest attempt could be
made by few far-sighted and Jealous
idealists to rescue our Torah from OBJ
livion and our people from ignorance
that threatened them in this land.
For, it is not so much the aim of the
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Sem
mary planted in the great city of New
York-the greatest Jewish community
in the world in point of numbers in
history-to raise a few leaders
. {. 80 Il Ef,t.,..