Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka)

Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Yiddish: סלאבאדקער ישיבה; Lithuanian: Vilijampolės (Slabados) ješiva) was a yeshiva located in the town of Vilijampolės Slabada in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Vilijampolė in Kaunas, Lithuania). It operated from the late 19th century until World War II and was a site of the Kaunas pogrom in 1941.

Origins

From the second half of the 19th century onwards, Kovno became a hub of Jewish cultural activity in Lithuania. Prominent scholars included Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor (the "Kovner Rav"; officiated 1864–96), Abraham Mapu, one of the first modern Hebrew writers, and Israel Isidor Elyashev, known as the "Ba'al Makhshoves," the first Yiddish literary critic. The yeshivot of Slobodka, particularly the Or HaChaim yeshivah founded by Tzvi Levitan around 1863 (also known as Yeshivas R' Hirschel), attracted students from other countries. Nosson Tzvi Finkel, also known as "Der Alter fun Slabodka" (The Elder of Slabodka), who had also founded several kollelim in the area, served as mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) and introduced Musar ideals there.

In 1882, Nosson Tzvi Finkel merged his kollelim and the Ohr Hachaim yeshiva to form the "Slabodka Yeshiva". Finkel oversaw the institution while Yitzchak Yaakov Rabinowitz was appointed rosh yeshiva, a position he held until 1893. After his departure, Finkel appointed two brothers-in-law, Moshe Mordechai Epstein and Isser Zalman Meltzer, as rosh yeshivas. Meltzer left three years later to lead the Slutsk Yeshiva of the Ridvaz.