Yeshivas that have closed

Question

Recently there was a blog regarding the Shlomo Kluger Yeshiva on the Lower East Side. My father was a student at Yeshiva Eitz Chaim in Boro Park in the the early 40s. Over the years many Yeshivas or girl schools have closed and I am sure many of them have alumni with fond memories.

Can we please get names and locations of Yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs that are no longer open?

Answer 1

I assume you're referring to post-World War Two yeshivos? Most others are gone (though some, like the Mir, remain, most of them displaced). If you include them, you've got quite a list: ones that come immediately to mind were in Bavel (Sura, Pumbedisa, ...), pre-Nazi continental Europe, and pre-First-Crusade Rhineland (Mainz, Speyer, Worms, ...).

As far as post-World War Two goes, there was a yeshiva g'dola here in St. Louis, Mo., which has closed. (It was for a time in Eureka, Mo.)

Answer 2

In the 50's, Rav Simcha Wasserman established Ohr Elchonon high schoolin Los Angeles. It was located on Kings Road and Willoughby. The yeshiva closed in the 70's when Rav Simcha made aliya. Rav Simcha wished that the building always remain a yeshiva and named after his father. Chabad agreed to this stipulation and bought the yeshiva and its surrounding few acres. Chabad used the campus for a few years, naming the yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad. The building was eventually transported to a different part of town (near Hancock park). (Rav Simcha expressed disappointment about that). The old grounds were sold for condos.

Answer 3

The first real Lithuanian mussar style Yeshivah in America was started by HaGaon Rav Yehudah Levenberg and HaGaon Rav Sheftel Kramer in New Haven in the 20's.

Eventually it moved to Cleveland along with Rav Levenberg's new Rabbanus position and became known as "Yeshivah D'New Haven, Ka'ays B'Cleveland". During this period Rav Ruderman (Rav Sheftel's son-in-law) joined the Yeshivah.

When Rav Levenberg's new position did not work out and he was offered his old position back he wanted to move the Yeshivah back to New Haven. Rav Sheftel felt that this would be detrimental to the Yeshivah and the first Mahlokes in a Yeshivah in America was born! Rav Leizer Silver sat as the Av Beis Din and the decision was reached to split the Yeshivah.

Rav Sheftel continued with Rav Ruderman and half of the original Talmidim. While on a fundraising trip to Baltimore, Rav Ruderman was offered to start a Yeshivah there. He asked Rav Sheftel permission and Rav Sheftel gave him some of his top students. That is how Yeshivas Ner Yisrael was born. The New Haven Yeshivah Ka'ays B'Cleveland did not last much longer.

I just heard another postscript to this saga:

Some time after the Din Torah, one day when Rav Sheftel was learning in the empty Beis HaMedrash, a young man walked in. Rav Sheftel gave him sholom and asked him his name. He replied "Moshe Feinstein". (!) Rav Sheftel asked him what he was doing in Cleveland and he replied that he had accepted the position of Rosh HaYeshiva in that Yeshivah. Without saying anything about his position and authority in the Yeshivah, Rav Sheftel picked himself up, took his seforim and left the building. When Rav Moshe found out that he had been used as a pawn in a low-down trick, he left and went on to become the Rosh HaYeshivah of MTJ.

Answer 4

There used to be a Yeshiva in Seattle, Washington (in the 70's). (See the section about Rabbi Block).

Answer 5

There used to be an elementry school in Brooklyn known as Ohel Yaakov. It closed in the 70s and was affiliated with Novordok.

Answer 6

According to Wikipedia, Yeshivat Volozhin has not been operating since around 1939.