Introduction
Part I The Volozhin Yeshiva1 The Beginnings of the
Volozhin YeshivaR. Hayim of Volozhin • The Foundation of the
Volozhin Yeshiva • The Establishment of the Yeshiva in Volozhin •
Setting Up the Yeshiva and Organizing Financial Support •
Curriculum and Students • Areas of Study • The Position of the Rosh
Yeshiva • Yeshivas Modelled on Volozhin
2 The Beginning of the Yeshiva - Succession, Conflicts, and
ChangeR. Yitshak of Volozhin as Rosh Yeshiva • Change and
Continuity at the Yeshiva • The Role of the Yeshiva in Society • R.
Eliezer Fried as successor to R. Yitshak • R. Naftali Berlin and
the Question of Authority at the Yeshiva • The Conflict with R.
Yehoshua Heschel Levin • The Conflict with R. Yosef Dov
Soloveitchik • The Restoration of Order to the Staff and the
Yeshiva
3 The Yeshiva as a Place of StudyThe Yeshiva as a Torah
Study Centre • The Framework of Study • The Yeshiva Staff and their
Functions • The Yeshiva’s Functions
4 The Yeshiva AdministrationSupervision of Studies and
Examinations • The Shiur and Student Participation • The Importance
of the New Mode of Study • Staff–Student Relations: Financial
Support and Discipline • The Status of the Yeshiva in the Jewish
World
5 Students at the Volozhin YeshivaThe Decision to Study at
the Yeshiva • Admission to the Yeshiva • Absorption at the Yeshiva
• Integration at the Yeshiva • Student Activity and the Yeshiva’s
Response • The Individual Student and the Yeshiva • Students and
the Local Community
6 Life at the Volozhin YeshivaDaily Routine • Study
Arrangements • The Yeshiva Year • Sabbaths and Festivals •
Extra-Curricular Activity • The Haskalah: Interest among Students•
The Haskalah: The Yeshiva’s Response • Leisure Activities
7 The Final Years of the Volozhin YeshivaCharity and Aid
Associations • Zionist Organizations • Other Associations • Student
Newspapers • Political Activity at the Yeshiva • The Financial
State of the Yeshiva in its Final Years
8 The Closure of the Volozhin YeshivaRelations between the
Yeshiva and the Authorities • Secular Studies at the Yeshiva •
Background to the Controversy over the Successor to R. Berlin • The
Struggle over the Succession • The Factors in the Closure of the
Yeshiva • Appendix to Chapter 8: Official Documents about the
Volozhin Yeshiva
Part II Slobodka, Telz, and the Kolel9 The Slobodka
YeshivaThe Musar Movement • R. Yisrael Salanter • The Slobodka
Yeshiva • The Yeshiva’s Students • Talmud Study at the ‘Musar
Yeshiva’ • Internal Problems and External Expansion • Controversy
and Conflict at the Yeshiva
10 The Telz YeshivaThe Foundation of the Yeshiva • R.
Eliezer Gordon • The Aims of the Yeshiva • Study at the Yeshiva •
Admission of Students • Basic Support for the Yeshiva Students •
Conflicts at the Yeshiva • Factors in the Disruptions at the
Yeshiva • R. Eliezer Gordon’s Attitude towards the Haskalah and
Zionism • R. Gordon’s Confrontation with the Social Crisis
11 The Kolel Haperushim of Kovno and the ‘Kolel’
InstitutionThe Foundation of the Kolel and its Early History •
The Kolel’s Mode of Operation • Opposition and Conflicts • The
Kolel of Brodsky
ConclusionBibliographyIndex
Shaul Stampfer is Rabbi Edward Sandrow Professor of Soviet and East European Jewry and chairman of the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also taught at Harvard University and elsewhere, including in Moscow (1989–91), where he helped establish the Jewish University. Through his many published articles he has made a seminal contribution to the Jewish social history of eastern Europe, opening up new areas of research in the history of Jewish education, Jewish demography and family life, community organization and leadership, and related topics.
'Stampfer sifts through mountains of documentation, searching for
versions that ring true and painting an extraordinarily detailed
account of every aspect of life in the famous yeshivot. His book is
vital to the students of Orthodox Jewish history and of Jewish
culture in eastern Europe.'
Pinchas Roth, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews
'One of the foremost experts on eastern European Jewry... He has a
well-deserved reputation for being one of the nicest people in
Israeli academia; but he seems to revel in challenging common
assumptions, tweaking conventional wisdom, and making eastern
European Jewry look very different from what everyone seems to
think. He does all of these things in [this book], an expanded
translation of his masterful 1995 Hebrew book on the subject. Its
publication should change the way English-speaking Jews think about
what a yeshiva is and ought to be.'
Yoel Finkelman, Jewish Ideas Daily
'Those with an interest in modern Talmudic study will find the
book, as I did, a spellbinding overview of the development of the
modern yeshiva. Stampfer’s impeccable research changes the way one
will look at the reasons for the creation of and the development of
these yeshivas in Lithuania. The book is like a riveting
documentary, full of fascinating insights.'
Ben Rothke, The Times of Israel
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