Kol Torah is a yeshiva in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem.
History
Yeshivas Kol Torah was founded in 1939 by Yechiel Michel Schlesinger (1898–1948), born in
Hamburg,
Germany and Boruch Kunstadt, a dayan from
Fulda,
Germany. It was the first mainstream
Haredi Judaism yeshiva to teach in
Hebrew language, as opposed to
Yiddish, as was accepted at the time. This innovation had the crucial support of the
Chazon Ish.
After Schlesinger's death in 1949, Kol Torah was headed by Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, until his death in 1995.
Moshe Yehuda Schlesinger, eldest son of the founder, is currently serving as rosh yeshiva. Kol Torah is separated into two parts, the rabbinical college and the high school. The number of students in both combined reaches around 1000 students.
Notable faculty members
-
, author of Birkas Avrohom.
-
Yehoshua Neuwirth (1927-2013), author of Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah.
Notable alumni
-
Pinchas Biberfeld (1915–1999), Chief Rabbi of Munich.
-
Israel Meir Lau (born 1937), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel (1993–2003).
-
Norman Lebrecht (born 1948), British commentator on music and cultural affairs, and novelist.
-
Yehoshua Neuwirth (1927 - 2013), author of Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah.
-
Chaim Walder (1968-2021), author of Haredi children's literature who committed suicide after a rabinnical court concluded he had sexually abused dozens of women, girls, and boys.
-
Yitzhak Shlomo Zilberman (1929-2001), founder of Yeshivat Aderet Eliyahu; pioneer of the Zilberman Method in Jewish education.
