A Johannesburg school that took the lead in pioneering Torah
education in South Africa, celebrates its fiftieth
anniversary this year. Yeshiva College, which began its
existence as a yeshiva ketanoh offering part-time
shiurim to a handful of interested teenagers, is now
the largest religious day school system in the country, with
over 800 pupils from junior school to graduation. In the
course of the last half century, the institution has further
been instrumental, directly or indirectly, in the emergence
of a host of other Torah chinuch institutions, all of
which have contributed to transforming the religious
landscape in the city.
The story of Yeshiva College is in many ways the story of the
growth of Judaism in Johannesburg. At the time of its
establishment, the general level of religious observance was
exceedingly low, and beyond a rudimentary period of pre-bar
mitzvah instruction in the local chadorim, most Jews
received minimal Jewish education. Dedication to the Zionist
ideal was the dominant feature of the South African Jewish
community at the time. As a result, traditional Jewish
learning was widely regarded with suspicion, as representing
a possible throwback to the discredited ghetto past.
Ominously, the Reform movement established in 1933, was also
experiencing modest but steady growth at this time,
attracting a number of members of the community who were
repelled by what they saw as hypocrisy within the Orthodox
establishment for the failure of its nominal adherents to
live up to its precepts.
The founders of Yeshiva College back then were realistic
enough in the prevailing climate of ignorance and apathy not
to set their initial goals too high. For the trickle of young
talmidim who attended the original classes, this was a
first-ever exposure to authentic Judaism, and it was
important not to force the pace. The policy of Yeshiva
College was always to attract all members of the community,
regardless of their level of religious observance, in the
hope of gradually bringing them closer to a Torah
lifestyle.
With the passage of time, the levels of both learning and
observance within the school have progressively been raised
as Johannesburg Jewry as a whole has increased its commitment
to Torah living.
Rabbi Michel Kossowsky, scion of an illustrious rabbinical
family in Lithuania (he was related to HaRav Chaim Ozer
Grodzensky), was the chief founder and first rosh
yeshiva who, together with several local rabbonim,
delivered the early shiurim. In 1954 Rabbi David
Sanders, a talmid of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland,
was brought to South Africa by the Yeshiva. He served as Dean
until 1962 and was its first full-time member of staff.
Gradually the institution, which converted itself into a high
school combining limudei kodesh and secular courses in
1958, began to win wider recognition as an important part of
the Jewish communal infrastructure. During the 1960s it
steadily expanded, adding first a kindergarten, followed by
two junior school branches and finally a girls' high school
as well.
From the outset, a high proportion of the Yeshiva College
graduates continued their studies in yeshivas overseas
after graduating, and many of these subsequently returned to
serve the community as rabbonim and teachers. This was an
important development as previously the local community had
been forced to import all its rabbinical leaders, mainly from
England. In 1972, the school established a yeshiva
gedolah, a facility for post-graduate learning that also
provided a facility for training rabbonim locally.
The Yeshiva Gedolah is today an independent institution,
still under the leadership of its founding Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi
Azriel Goldfein. Other Torah centers that have arisen as a
result of previous initiatives by Yeshiva College include the
Yeshiva Maharsha school and shul, and the Shaarei
Torah, Hirsch Lyons and Torah Academy schools.
In 1995, Yeshiva College achieved international recognition
when it was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for Torah education
in the Diaspora. The prize was jointly awarded to the school
and its long-serving rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham
Tanzer.
2003 also marks the fortieth anniversary of the arrival of
Rabbi Tanzer, who replaced Rabbi Sanders at the beginning of
1963 and was appointed rosh yeshiva in 1966 following
the untimely passing of Rabbi Kossowsky two years earlier. A
talmid of such luminaries as Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch,
Rabbi Chaim Mordecai Katz and Rabbi Mordecai Gifter at the
Telz Yeshiva, he had been personally recommended for the
position by Rabbi Katz, his rosh yeshiva. His son
Rabbi Dov Tanzer, who was appointed menahel of the
school in 1993, enjoys a growing reputation as a halachic
scholar. His sefer Yad Avrohom, a detailed analysis of
every mishna in maseches Oholos in Seder
Taharos, was greeted with international acclaim when it
appeared last year.
