:Yeshivas Itri

The name of the yeshiva is an acronym for Israel Torah Research Institute,.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38ohKjvgknIC&pg=PA95|title=Biblical and Judaic Acronyms|first= Lawrence |last=Marwick|year=1979|publisher= KTAV Publishing House, Inc.|isbn= 0870684388|page=95}} From its founding, the yeshiva was officially called Yeshivas Midrash HaTalmud Tiferes Avraham – Itri (Yeshiva for the Study of the Talmud, Glory of Abraham – Itri). After the death of Rabbi Elefant, its founder, in 2009, the name was changed to Yeshivas Midrash HaTalmud Zehav Mordechai – Itri (Yeshiva for the Study of the Talmud, Gold of Mordechai – Itri).

Yeshivas Itri was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Mordechai Elefant, an American-born educator who was a close student of Rabbis Aharon Kotler, Aryeh Leib Malin and Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik. He married the granddaughter of Yaakov Yosef Herman. The initial student body comprised 60 kollel students, but enrollment soon expanded with unmarried yeshiva students. The yeshiva met for several years in the Orient House hotel in East Jerusalem. Rabbi Elefant moved it to the premises of an old British Mandate hospital in the southeast of the city, near the Arab village of Beit Safafa, in the 1970s. Students were housed in adjacent apartments.

By 1971, enrollment was at 250 students, the majority from the United States.{{cite web |url=http://search.archives.jdc.org/multimedia/Documents/NY_AR65-74/NY65-74_CR/NY65-74_CR_022/NY65-74_CR_022_0782.pdf|title=Visit to ITRI Yeshiva – Jerusalem|date=28 September 1971|access-date=21 October 2015|publisher=American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee}} The yeshiva received funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, government sources, and private donations.

Over time, the institution grew to encompass a kollel, yeshiva gedola, yeshiva ketana, and Talmud Torah. Branches of the yeshiva were also opened in Hadera and in the United States.{{cite web |url=http://www.chareidi.org/archives5770/chayeisoroh/CHS70arelefant.htm|title=NEWS: HaRav Mordechai Elefant zt"l|first=Yechiel|last=Sever|date=12 November 2009|access-date=21 October 2015|work=Dei'ah VeDibur}}

In 1999 yeshiva administrator Rabbi Chaim Weiss and businessman David Appel were suspected of embezzling NIS 9 million from yeshiva coffers during Rabbi Elefant's medical leave.{{cite web |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22103177.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160409181657/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22103177.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 9 April 2016|title= Elifant denies fleeing over Itri Yeshiva scandal|first=Dan|last=Izenberg|date=8 July 1999|access-date=21 October 2015|work=The Jerusalem Post|url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |url= http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/itri-yeshiva-boss-faces-indictment-over-missing-funds-1.96309|title= Itri Yeshiva Boss Faces Indictment Over Missing Funds|first=Baruch|last=Kra|date=6 August 2003|access-date=22 October 2015|work=Haaretz}}{{cite web |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22013017.html|title=More Suspects to be Questioned in Itri Yeshiva Fraud Case|first=Margot|last=Dudkevitch|date=28 June 1999|access-date=21 October 2015|work=The Jerusalem Post|url-access=subscription }}{{dead link|date=February 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} The police investigation carried on for years; by 2014, police theorized that the stolen money was meant to pay for the defense of Aryeh Deri,{{cite web |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-230716310.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160417185337/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-230716310.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 17 April 2016|title=From Our Archives|first= Alexander |last=Zvielli|date=25 November 2014|access-date=21 October 2015|work= The Jerusalem Post|url-access=subscription }} who was convicted on charges of fraud and bribery in 2000.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/04/world/divided-israel-thousands-rally-for-ex-shas-party-leader-he-goes-jail.html|title=In a Divided Israel, Thousands Rally for the Ex-Shas Party Leader as He Goes to Jail|first=Deborah|last=Sontag|date=4 September 2000|access-date=22 October 2015|work=The New York Times}}

Several educational programs for Diaspora Jews were spun off from Yeshivas Itri. They include:

• Yeshivat HaMivtar, founded in 1967 by alumnus Rabbi Chaim Brovender for English-speaking college-age students.{{cite web |url= http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Learning-experience|title=Learning Experience|first=Amihai|last=Zippor|date=5 July 2007|access-date=21 October 2015|work=The Jerusalem Post}}
• Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah, founded in 1974 in Queens, New York as a branch of Yeshivas Itri by Rabbis Kalman Epstein and Sholom Spitz.
• Shvut Ami Center for Russian Jews, founded in 1976 as a branch of Yeshivas Itri by Shimon Grilius, a former Prisoner of Zion; it later became an independent program.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XBdwCAAAQBAJ&dq=itri+yeshiva&pg=PP377|title= From Washington Avenue to Washington Street|first=Aaron |last=Rakeffet-Rothkoff|author-link=Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff|publisher=Gefen Publishing House|year=2011|isbn= 978-9652299857|page=377}}
• Bruria (later Shappell's women's college), founded in 1976 by Rabbi Chaim Brovender as a spinoff of Yeshivas Itri's women's program.{{cite web |url= http://www.jcpa.org/jl/jl429.htm|title=The Flourishing of Higher Jewish Learning for Women|first=Rochelle|last=Furstenberg|publisher=Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs|date=1 May 2000|access-date=21 October 2015}}
• Shapell's/Darche Noam (originally known as Hartman's), was a spinoff of the Yeshivas Itri program for English-speaking men.

• Rabbi Ariav Ozer, rosh yeshiva
• Rabbi Meir Shimon Spitzer, Mashgiach

• Rabbi Mordechai Elefant, rosh yeshiva
• Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, rosh yeshiva and rosh mesivta
• Rabbi Michel Zilber, rosh mesivta
• Rabbi Dovid Eliach, mashgiach
• Rabbi Zev Getzil, mashgiach
• Rabbi Shlomo Fischer, rosh yeshiva {{cite web |last1=Safier |first1=Dovi |title=Blinded By His Glow |url=https://mishpacha.com/blinded-by-his-glow/ |website=Mishpacha |date=23 November 2021 |access-date=17 April 2022}}
• Rabbi Yitzchok Bretler, Rosh Heshivah 1980-2022
• Rabbi Raphael Wexelbaum, rosh mesivta {{Cite web|url=https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?t=46170&start=40|title=הגאון רבי מרדכי אליפנט זצ"ל ראש ישיבת איתרי - עמוד 2 - פורום אוצר החכמה|website=forum.otzar.org}}
• Rabbi Asher Zelig Rubinstein, mashgiach in the mesivta {{Cite web|url=https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/208171/rabbi-asher-zelig-rubenstein-ztl-a-life-of-greatness-and-emunah.html|title=Rabbi Asher Zelig Rubenstein zt’l: A Life of Greatness and Emunah|date=December 30, 2013|website=www.theyeshivaworld.com}}
• Rabbi Amiram Shkedi, rebbi in the mesivta

• Chaim Brovender
• Hanoch Teller{{cite web | url=https://en.hakotel.org.il/staff/ | title=Staff }}

{{main|Kiryat Itri}}

Rabbi Elefant founded the Kiryat Itri neighborhood in northern Jerusalem in 1967, the year before he established the yeshiva. This Orthodox Jewish housing development, adjacent to Kiryat Mattersdorf and designed for 250 families,{{cite web |url=http://www.jta.org/1968/08/27/archive/first-group-of-u-s-jews-leaves-for-israel-to-settle-in-orthodox-township|title=First Group of U.S. Jews Leaves for Israel to Settle in Orthodox Township|work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=27 August 1968|access-date=22 October 2015}} was undertaken in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel{{cite news |url=http://jpress.org.il/Olive/APA/NLI_Heb/SharedView.Article.aspx?parm=%2FZBcyTM2efPLRDKhPPbd2vx9NkwUYyQ5TuWXRUKou0rJc44i%2FKdOjIP%2FQH4%2FYm5bYw%3D%3D&mode=image&href=MAR%2f1969%2f09%2f07&page=17&rtl=true|title=אלפי עולים דתיים מארה"ב יבואו להתיישב בקריות הדתיות|language=he|trans-title=Thousands of Religious Immigrants from the United States Come to Settle in Religious Townships|newspaper=Maariv|date=7 September 1969|page=17|access-date=22 October 2015|first=Rafael|last=Eldor}} to encourage American Jewish immigration to Israel.{{cite news |url=http://jpress.org.il/Olive/APA/NLI_Heb/SharedView.Article.aspx?parm=0NU%2B7uZuH8FdCe0I52mYWYpcmmXq0mUg0295lRn47GiqGepBk%2BFY9HSkpFX50Hp3Yw%3D%3D&mode=image&href=MAR%2f1968%2f08%2f30&page=15&rtl=true|title=הרב אלפנט ו'העולים שלו'|language=he|trans-title=Rabbi Elefant and 'His Immigrants'|first=Dov|last=Goldstein|newspaper=Maariv|date=30 August 1968|page=15|access-date=22 October 2015}} Rabbi Nathan Kamenetsky, an instructor at Yeshivas Itri, lived in Kiryat Itri with his family.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_cpjrIcHoQkC&pg=PA275|title=Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or clash of civilizations?|first=Meir|last=Litvak|year=2006|publisher=The Moshe Dayan Center|isbn=9652240737|page=275}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://search.archives.jdc.org/multimedia/Documents/NY_AR55-64/NY55-64_CR_023/NY55-64_CR_023_1153.pdf "Maimonides Medical Manuscript Project"]

{{Orthodox yeshivas in Israel and the West Bank}}

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Category:Orthodox yeshivas in Jerusalem

Category:Educational institutions established in 1968