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The national-religious camp's flagship yeshiva By Yair Sheleg The Mercaz Harav rabbinic college is the most prominent yeshiva in the religious Zionist world. It trained the movement's leading rabbis as well as many yeshiva heads, city rabbis, and teachers in religious colleges and high schools. The school was central in shaping the evolution of religious Zionism. As the flagship of national-religious yeshivas, the religious right is bound to attribute greater symbolic meaning to a terrorist attack here than anywhere else. Advertisement Founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, then chief Ashkenazi rabbi during the British Mandate, it is seen as the first yeshiva to be Zionist in spirit. Rabbi Kook called it "the central world yeshiva," wishing to set it as a model for a new yeshiva concept, integrating traditional Talmud studies with Jewish philosophy, Bible and even Jewish history, geography and literature. The last three subjects were never actually taught there. After its founder's death in 1935 it was named Merkaz Harav after him, and became synonymous with Rabbi Kook's teachings. In its first decades the college had few students and at times it was not clear whether it would survive. The turning point came in the '50s, when graduates of Bnei Akiva religious schools and high-school yeshivas seeking higher religious education flocked to Merkaz Harav, the only Zionist yeshiva. The prominent Bnei Akiva rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria, a student of Rabbi Kook's, encouraged students to go to Merkaz Harav, which was headed from 1952 by Rabbi Abraham Kook's son, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, until his death in 1982. The foundations for the religious settlements in the West Bank were forged in Merkaz Harav, whose student Hanan Porat set out to restore the Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion immediately after the Six-Day War. The founders of Gush Emunim, a religious political movement that encouraged Jewish settlement of land they believe God promised the Jews, came from Merkaz Harav after the Yom Kippur War. Link to the settlements Rabbi Kook encouraged his students to go out and fight for the settlements in the West Bank. He himself took active part in these struggles. Rabbi Kook was very strict about modest clothes for women and the separation of men and women. After his death in 1982, his successor Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who also served as chief rabbi, clashed with Kook's favorite student Rabbi Zvi Tau. Tau's people said that Shapira, who came from an ultra-Orthodox background, was wiping out the college's unique theological character and turning it into another run-of-the-mill yeshiva. The clash led to an official split in 1997, after Shapira introduced to the yeshiva a teachers' training institute, which Tau and his people saw as an "idol in the temple." Tau and his people left and established the Har Mor rabbinic college, which became quite powerful and dominant. Last year, after Shapira's death, his son Rabbi Yaakov Shapira succeeded him as yeshiva head. The yeshiva's well-known graduates include former MK Rabbi Haim Druckman, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi Zfania Drori, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Rabbi Yoel Bin-Noon and former MK Rabbi Hanan Porat. Other graduates include the Irgun's first commander David Raziel and Maariv newspaper founder Azriel Carlebach. Today, the yeshiva has about 500 students, including 200 students in the yeshiva's kollel (post-graduate division). Bookmark to del.icio.us   From Pyongyan with Love N. Korea's leader expresses hope for stronger ties with Syria Peres in Paris Pres. tells <i>Le Figaro</i> Israel won't act alone to halt Iran nuke program.

Today Online Bradley Burston: To the Westerner who 'understands' terrorist Responses: 544 A. Issacharoff: Gazans see yeshiva attack as unusual achievement Responses: 255 U.S.: Peace talks must go on despite Jerusalem massacre Responses: 308 Yossi Sarid: Yasser Arafat is dead, but his curse lives on Responses: 74 More Headlines 21:55 Police nab 8 in connection to Jerusalem terror attack 00:08 Olmert vows deterrence will be achieved against terror groups 00:14 'His face would glow with joy,' say friends of yeshiva attack victim 19:26 ADL denounces 'shocking' UN inaction on J'lem terror attack 17:51 Cairo official: Gaza Strip conflict serves Syrian interests 18:00 Report: Peres says Israel will not act alone to halt Iran nuke program 17:52 Israel marks Int'l Women's Day with music, drama and art 11:12 Putin - Not so much pro-Jewish as free from anti-Semitism 01:01 Egyptian police shoot Sudanese man trying to enter Israel illegally 20:13 Germany's Jews opposed to proposal for medal for bravery 13:02 North Korea's leader expresses hope for stronger friendship with Syria 07:25 IDF arrests three Palestinians who threw bombs at settlement Previous Editions Select Day 07 mar 06 mar 05 mar 04 mar 03 mar 02 mar 29 feb 28 feb 27 feb 26 feb 25 feb 24 feb

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