Beth Medrash Elyon: Looking at Monsey today, it’s hard to imagine it all started with one yeshiva:Watch Video Clip https://fb.watch/IVNFRJ6T8p/

Part four in a series of five, in commemoration of the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l, the third day of Elul

There was another dimension to Rabbi Mendlowitz’s educational vision that is sometimes lost when his legacy is reduced to Torah Vodaath and Torah Umesorah. He understood that a Jewish educational revolution could not end when a student graduated from high school. If Jewish education was to become the foundation of Jewish survival in America, there had to be a place where young men could continue serious Torah study after their secondary education and, just as importantly, where future teachers and communal leaders could be prepared for the responsibilities of building Jewish life in America. This conviction led to one of Mendlowitz’s most visionary undertakings, Beth Medrash Elyon.

In 1943, Mendlowitz purchased a substantial tract of land in Monsey, (the William Heidgerd residential estate and its active farm outbuildings historically spanned roughly 24 to 28 acres), then a largely undeveloped and decidedly non-Jewish area, with the intention of creating an institution that would raise the educational level of Torah teachers. The first institution established there was Aish Dos, a teachers’ institute whose very name, “Pillar of Fire,” expressed the mission. The idea was daring. Why build a Torah institution in a place where there was scarcely a Jewish community? Because Mendlowitz was not merely reacting to existing Jewish geography. He was creating the geography of the Jewish future. In 1944, the institution was reorganized as Beth Medrash Elyon. It became one of America’s earliest post-graduate yeshivot and an important center for advanced Torah learning.

The significance of Beth Medrash Elyon goes well beyond the walls of the institution itself. Mendlowitz understood that schools cannot exist without teachers, communities cannot exist without leaders, and a Torah civilization cannot reproduce itself without scholars capable of transmitting its intellectual tradition. The creation of Beth Medrash Elyon was therefore the logical next step in his educational architecture. Torah Vodaath could educate the child. A national day-school movement could bring Jewish education to communities across America. But where would the teachers come from? Where would the next generation of Torah educators be trained? Where would young men develop the depth of learning necessary to become the intellectual leadership of a growing American Jewish community? Beth........

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