Shema Yisrael
In 1972 Weinbach and Rabbis Nota Schiller, Noah Weinberg, and Yaakov Rosenberg established Shema Yisrael Yeshiva to attract young, English-speaking Jewish men with little or no background in Jewish studies. After a few years, Weinberg left the yeshiva over a difference in philosophy and founded Aish HaTorah in 1974. Shema Yisrael subsequently changed its name to Ohr Somayach (after the commentary on the Mishneh Torah written by Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk), in response to critics who contended that the name Shema Yisrael belonged to the entire Jewish people rather than a single institution. Weinbach and Schiller continued on as rosh yeshivas, developing the program into a Talmud study program with the goal of facilitating the adoption of Orthodox practices among formerly secular Jewish students integrate into Orthodox Jewish communities. Other Torah scholars invited to serve as rosh yeshivas over the years included Rabbi Dov Schwartzman and Rabbi Aharon Feldman.