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Why We Need Yeshivas — and Why They Must Compromise
A yeshiva student. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
What is a yeshivah? It’s a place where you sit, literally.
Of course, you can do many things when you sit — from meditation to wasting time. In the US, a yeshivah can be a Jewish school, which may include secular and Jewish studies. But in most other places, it is an academy for intensive Talmudic study — which may last a few years or a whole lifetime. And like any academic institution, there are serious students, students who shouldn’t be there, and layabouts marking time.
The story goes that the High Priest Simon the Righteous met Alexander the Great and came away impressed by his description of the Greek academies. He realized that the only way to combat Greek culture was to adapt the Greek academy to Jewish learning. But the first evidence of Jewish academies begins in the land of Israel with the emergence of the schools of Hillel and Shamai, and the large numbers of students who sat at the feet of the great rabbinic teachers during the first three centuries of the common era.
Great Babylonian academies flourished from the third century for nearly 1,000 years at Sura, Pumbedita, Nehardea, and Machoza in Mesopotamia. And they then spread across the Mediterranean. But most Talmudic studies around the Jewish world took place in small gatherings of pupils around distinguished rabbis. It was in Eastern Europe during the 19th century that large, organized academies called yeshivot were established and flourished.
During the Second World War, Hitler and Stalin between them, destroyed the Eastern European communities and all the yeshivot. Some survivors, including some from Mir Yeshiva in Lithuania where my father had studied, managed to get to Shanghai, where they continued to study for the duration until they were able to move to Jerusalem or New York.
I was sent as an unruly 15-year-old to a yeshiva in Israel. My father thought it would have a profound impact on me, and he was right. Back in those days, there were not many major yeshivot in Israel.
After the Six-Day War, a more spiritual dimension entered Israeli society together with the idealistic drive to re-settle traditional Israelite territory. This also affected the cultural climate. And secular Israelis who used to see themselves as the elite and entitled founders of Israel resented the overthrow of the old regime when Menachem Begin gave more power both to the Sephardi and the Religious communities. This aggravated the deep rift in Israeli society over what kind of state it should be. Since then, the religious world has increased exponentially — partially as a response to the Holocaust and the determination to produce large families to restore the lost academies and communities of Eastern Europe.
Yeshivas vary in atmosphere and intellectual approach. Now almost every town in Israel and significant Jewish community has its yeshivah. Thanks both to government support and wealthy donors around the world, there are yeshivot of all kinds, from those that combine study with serving in the army, for women as well as men, secular, and the whole range of the different Charedi sects.
A yeshiva is supposed to be more than a place of study. It is supposed to be a spiritual inspiration. It should be a deeply religious place of morality and spirituality. And yet, as with all academic and religious sects, indeed most human institutions, as they grow, they become cliquish, divided and often violent. Just read about the current saga of rival gangs fighting over dead bodies in Ponevez Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
When Israel was founded, the military exemption for yeshiva students applied to only a handful of students. The number of those demanding exemption has swollen to thousands, and the yeshiva communities have been massively subsidized by the state without any reciprocal commitment.
For all their problems, internal and external yeshivas were and are the driving power behind the revival of Orthodoxy from near extinction and the growth of religious study and religious creativity. But the system that developed defensively to protect Jewish learning, now suffers from political infighting over, amongst other things, military service.
It is reassuring, and in many ways comforting and proof of our resilience that we as a people of the book are growing in numbers and confidence. Yeshivas today, as they were thousands of years ago, are the cornerstone of Judaism and its guarantee of its religious survival. But both sides of the religious and political divides, within and without, need to be more tolerant of each other and ready to compromise, lest we tear each other apart.
The author is a writer and rabbi, based in New York.
The post Why We Need Yeshivas — and Why They Must Compromise first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.