Yavneh

Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh

Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh (ישיבת כרם ביבנה, lit. Vineyard in Yavne Yeshiva) is a major yeshiva in Israel near the city of Ashdod and adjacent to Kvutzat Yavne.

Enrollment and structure

The yeshiva has an enrollment of around 450 students, including students from Israel and about 120 from overseas, who reside in dormitories on campus. Overseas students come mainly from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, but also from a diverse group of countries including Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Brazil, Australia and South Africa. Unusual among Israeli yeshivot enrolling foreign students, the Israeli and foreign students are highly integrated in dormitory arrangements and classes. Helping with integration is the high proportion of Israeli students who are themselves immigrants (or children of immigrants) from the United States and the United Kingdom.

The yeshiva has a Kollel as well as a Kollel Ledayanut, or Kollel for training of Dayanim.

Philosophy and Ideals

The yeshiva is a religious Zionist institution, which advocates the position that the State of Israel in a concrete step forward in the coming in the final redemption. This is strongly shown by the fact that it is a Yeshivat Hesder.

Hesder yeshiva

The first Yeshivat Hesder, Kerem BeYavneh was founded in 1953. The first Rosh Yeshiva of Kerem B'Yavneh was the renowned scholar Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht. Following his retirement, Goldvicht was succeeded by Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg, himself an alumnus of the yeshiva.

Prominent alumni

The yeshiva has produced many notable alumni in the course of the last 54 years, counting among its graduates many prominent rabbis and communal leaders both in Israel and abroad, including:

Rabbi Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
Rabbi Shlomo Gemara, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Or Chaim
Rabbi Yitzhak Levy, Knesset member
Rabbi Hanan Porat, retired pol
Uri Bin Nun, current director the Israel Electric Corporation

A number of the staff at RIETS studied at the yeshiva, including:

Controversy

The yeshiva is also the alma mater of Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir who studied at the school for five years. Following the assassination, one of the yeshiva's lecturers Rabbi David Kav was questioned alongside Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch of Ma'ale Adumim Yeshiva and Rabbi Shmuel Dvir of Har Etzion Yeshiva on the suspicion that they had sanctioned the killing. Rabbi David Kav was released unconditionally after questioning and ultimately no charges were pressed against any of the rabbis.