The Radin yeshiva as it appeared some 90 years ago
The Torah world is very excited over the announcement of the purchase of the yeshiva building in Radin by a Torah-oriented group.
After much effort and extensive negotiations over many months, it was finally announced that the recovery of the famous building of the yeshiva where the Chofetz Chaim taught Torah and yirah to thousands of students in Radin, Belorussia, was finalized, after its having served as a gentile cultural center.
The group of Jews who salvaged the yeshiva building, also acquired a large area of over twenty dunam (around 5 acres) encompassing the yeshiva premises. On this site, a building complex to be known as Kiryat Ohr Hameir in the name of the Chofetz Chaim will be erected. It will contain a huge beis medrash for study and prayer, a mikveh, and buildings housing hundreds of beds, dining rooms and large lecture halls for visitors.
This moving news was hailed by all strata of chareidi Jewry in Israel and abroad. Now thousands will be able to visit the holy site of the Master Teacher of Jewry, the saintly Chofetz Chaim, as opposed to the previous situation which lacked the very minimal conditions for visitors.
Members of the delegation of the Committee for Liberating Yeshivas Radin are visiting the homes of gedolei Yisroel these days to receive their blessings.
The rabbonim visiting HaRav Chaim Kanievksy
The official announcement of the purchase of the yeshiva building and its reestablishment as a center for study and prayer took place in the home of HaRav Chaim Kanievsky. The establishment of a yeshiva for metzuyonim in the Chofetz Chaim's name and in his memory was also announced, alongside that of a center for the Chofetz Chaim Heritage which will include thousands of documents and manuscripts, and a treasury of his teachings and legacy.
HaRav Chaim blessed them enthusiastically, noting the importance of the recovery of this site, an act which will substantially expand the borders of Torah in a foreign land and upon this holy site. The official cornerstone laying ceremony will take place this summer amidst much deserved pomp and ceremony.
