Yeshiva Gedolah Lubavitch London

The Yeshiva Gedola Lubavitch, London (Lubavitch Talmudic

Academy) is part of an international group of Yeshivas that had

their origins in Russia in the late 19th century.

The first such Yeshiva was founded in the town of Lubavitch in

1897 by Rabbi Sholom Ber Schneersohn, the fifth Rebbe of the

Lubavitch dynasty whose ethos is predicated on the cardinal Torah

principle of “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

 

Inaugurating the Yeshiva, Rabbi Schneersohn said that he wanted

a Yeshiva where the time-honoured traditional texts were studied

combined with the study of Chabad philosophy and esoteric

disciplines, so that the graduates would be distinguished “both in

the study halls and in the market place.” They would achieve not

only academic excellence but a refinement of their personal

development, so that wherever they went, they would illuminate

their environment with deeds of goodness and kindness, serving

as a good influence to others.

Due to religious persecution in the early 20th century, the location

of this Yeshiva moved, first to Riga and then to Poland.

In 1940, the Lubavitch headquarters relocated to New York, USA,

where under successive leaderships over the next 50 years,

particularly under that of Rabbi Menachem M Schneerson, the

seventh Rebbe of the dynasty, it grew until it has become the

largest international educational establishment with kindergartens,

schools, seminaries and Yeshivos throughout the USA and on

every continent in the world. Its publishing branch produces

religious books in many languages. Its centres worldwide, catering

for the complete spectrum of Jewish men, women and children

regardless of their affiliation or background, have achieved an

unrivalled reputation for providing formal and informal education,

and care and concern, both spiritually and materially, for the

communities they serve.

In 1978, as a mark of honour, by a Joint Resolution of the US

Senate and Congress and approved by President Jimmy Carter,

Rabbi Menachem M Schneerson’s birth date was proclaimed as

“Education Day USA.” Again, in 1989, a similar Resolution was

approved by President George Bush, nominating the Rebbe’s birth

date as Education Day 1989 and 1990 in recognition of “his

promotion of education that embraces moral and ethical values

and emphasises their importance.”

In 1995, the Rebbe was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal,

an honour bestowed to only 100 Americans, for “outstanding and

lasting contributions towards improvements in world education,

morality and acts of charity.”

It was under Rabbi Schneerson’s patronage and guidance that the

Lubavitch Foundation of Great Britain (a registered charity) was

founded at the end of the first half of the 20th century.

It has since grown into a national organisation covering the whole

of the United Kingdom with, amongst its other centres, a schools

system for boys and girls from kindergarten to senior schools.

October 1982 saw the opening of the Yeshiva Gedola Lubavitch,

London, an autonomous division of the Lubavitch Foundation and

part of the international Lubavitch Yeshivos network.

In the thirty years since its inauguration, the Yeshiva has grown in

size and has achieved a reputation for both academic excellence

and refinement of character that now attracts more applications

from students at home and abroad than it can at present

accommodate.