Slabodka yeshiva (Knesset Yisrael), was known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas" (rabbinical seminaries). It was located in the Lithuanian town of Slabodka, adjacent to Kovno (now-Vilijampole, part of Kaunas). It was functioning from the late 19th century until the Second World War and was named after its location, a suburb of Kovno. It was headed by Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, also known as Der Alter ("The Elder") of Slabodka. Its Rosh yeshiva was Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein. Among the graduates of the Slabodka yeshiva were Rabbis Aharon Kotler, Yitzchok Ruderman, Dovid Leibowitz, Yitzchok Hutner, Avigdor Miller and Saul Lieberman. Professor Harry Austryn Wolfson of Harvard University also attended the Slabodka Yeshiva.

The Slabodka yeshiva ceased operation during the Second World War. Already before the war a large segment of the students had relocated to Hebron under Rabbi Finkel's leadership, and the yeshiva had been run by Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher.

Addition: R. Moshe Danishevsky was Rav of Slabodka

See also

Kovno Kollel

External link

• The New School of Kabbalah in Kovno