Torah Lehranstalt, also known as the Frankfurt Yeshiva or the Breuer Yeshiva, was an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, founded in 1893 by Rabbi Dr.

Solomon Breuer Solomon (Shlomo Zalman) Breuer (27 June 1850 – 17 July 1926) was a Hungarian-born German rabbi, initially in Pápa, Hungary, and from the early 1890s in Frankfurt as a successor of his father-in-law Samson Raphael Hirsch. Life and work Solomon ...

, the rabbi of the city's seceded Orthodox community (the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft, Khal Adath Jeshurun).

History

Samson-raphael-hirsch-schule frankfurt hesse germany

Rabbi Breuer served as the rabbi of Frankfurt's seceded Orthodox Jewish community, having received the position after the death of his father-in-law, Rabbi

Samson Raphael Hirsch Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the ''Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', his ...

. In 1893, he founded the Torah Lehranstalt yeshiva, aiming to raise his community's appreciation of

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

study. The yeshiva was run in the style of the Hungarian yeshivas which Rabbi Breuer had studied in prior. Besides for the classic

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemo(r)re; from Aramaic , from the Semitic root ג-מ-ר ''gamar'', to finish or complete) is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah w ...

study, the yeshiva also included a secular studies program as well as classes in Jewish history and ''

Nevi'im Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (wri ...

''. There was also a focus on studying the laws of

Shabbos Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

, kashruth,

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...

, and blessings. In 1911, his son, Rabbi

Joseph Breuer Joseph Breuer, also known as Yosef Breuer (March 20, 1882 – April 19, 1980) was a rabbi and community leader in Germany and the United States. He was rabbi of one of the large Jewish synagogues founded by German-Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi opp ...

, joined the yeshiva faculty and introduced a learning program where the older students of Torah Lehranstalt studied together with the younger students from the community's Orthodox high school, the '' Samson Raphael Hirsch Realschule''. This convinced the ''Realschule'' students to enroll in yeshiva after graduation. In 1921, the yeshiva was divided into five levels of study, with approximately thirty students in each track. While the students were primarily Germans, many came from Hungary, Austria, and

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

as well. After the death of Rabbi Solomon Breuer in 1926, his son Rabbi Joseph Breuer became

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

(dean). The yeshiva closed at the onset of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. Rabbi Breuer left Germany in 1938 and became the leader of

Khal Adath Jeshurun Khal Adath Jeshurun (KAJ) is an Orthodox German Jewish Ashkenazi congregation in the Washington Heights neighborhood, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It has an affiliated synagogue in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Monse ...

community in New York. In some sense, the

Yeshiva Gedolah Frankfurt The Yeshivah Gedolah of Chabad Lubavitch in Frankfurt am Main is a Yeshiva operated by Chabad of Germany; see Tomchei Tmimim. The Director or Rosh Yeshivah is Rabbi Yossi Havlin; it was founded and continues to be run by Rabbi S. Zalman Gurevi ...

established in 2000, continues the tradition.

Notable alumni

* Rabbi

Isaac Breuer Isaac Breuer ( he, יצחק ברויאר; 1883–1946) was a rabbi in the German Neo-Orthodoxy movement of his maternal grandfather Samson Raphael Hirsch, and was the first president of Poalei Agudat Yisrael. Biography Isaac Breuer was born in ...

* Rabbi

Shimon Schwab Shimon (Simon) Schwab (December 30, 1908 – February 13, 1995) was an Orthodox rabbi and communal leader in Germany and the United States. Educated in Frankfurt am Main and in the ''yeshivot'' of Lithuania, he was rabbi in Ichenhausen, Bavaria, ...

* Rabbi Dr. Joseph (Yosef) Breuer * Rabbi Dr. Leo (Yehudah) Breslauer

References

{{Coord missing, Hesse 1893 establishments in Germany 1938 disestablishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Frankfurt Educational institutions established in 1893 Jewish German history Jewish seminaries Orthodox Jewish educational institutions Jews and Judaism in Germany Pre-World War II European yeshivas Jewish schools in Germany Yeshivas of Germany Jews and Judaism in Frankfurt