Yeshivah College, Australia

Yeshivah College, officially Yeshivas Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch (Hebrew: ישיבה אהלי יוסף יצחק ליובאוויטש‎), is an independent Orthodox Jewish comprehensive single-sex primary and secondary Jewish day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East, in Victoria, Australia.

This article is about the high school in Melbourne. For the Jewish umbrella organisation in Melbourne, see Yeshivah Centre, Melbourne. For the former school in Sydney, see Yeshivah Centre, Sydney § Yeshiva College.
For other uses, see Yeshiva College (disambiguation).

Yeshivah College
Hebrew: ישיבה אהלי יוסף יצחק ליובאוויטש‎, romanized: Yeshivas Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch
The Mochkin Building, which serves as the entrance to the Yeshivah primary school
Location
East St Kilda, Victoria

Australia
Coordinates37°52′07″S 145°00′00″E
Information
TypeIndependent comprehensive single-sex primary and secondary Jewish day school
Religious affiliation(s)Jewish
Denomination
Established1955 (1955)
PrincipalDr Shimon Waronker
Key people
  • The Lubavitcher Rebbe
  • Rabbi Y. D. Groner, OBD
YearsK-12
GenderBoys
Enrolment385 (2007[1])
Colour(s)Navy blue and gold
  
SloganEducating for life
Websiteybr.vic.edu.au

The school is run by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's Yeshivah Centre, and caters for students from kindergarten through to Year 12.

History

The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe sent five Chabad families to establish a community in Australia. They originally moved to Shepparton as there was already a Chabad family there. In the 1950s they moved to Melbourne and started the school in 1958. Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Groner was sent from New York to help in the school and not long after his arrival he became the principal and director of the school.

Yeshivah College now thrives on the same campus as Yeshivah Shule, the community's synagogue.

Administration

The school is part of a worldwide network of tre umbrella, and Rabbi Mordechai Berger was the principal of the high school, having replaced Rabbi Avrohom Glick at the start of the 2008 school year, however, Rabbi Glick stepped in as Interim Menahel when Rabbi Berger left at the end of the 2009 school year. Rabbi Glick ended his term as Interim Menahel at the end of term two, being succeeded by Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler from Sydney, Australia who finished in 2019 and then moved to Moriah College,Sydney. The current Principal of Yeshivah - Beth Rivkah Colleges is Dr. Shimon Wonker

Curriculum

From students in Year 10 and upwards, Yeshivah College has two educational tracks. One is a dual curriculum including both religious studies and general education studies. The other is a religious studies only curriculum known as Mesivta (Hebrew for "academy").

Shluchim

Every year a group of shluchim (emissaries) are sent to assist the teachers and mashpias of the school in setting an example for today's students. They do so by instituting mivtzos programs which encourage the practice of Chassidic life . In most years, the shluchim are sent from Ohlei Torah Rabbinical College in America.

Over the years the number of Shluchim to the school has varied. The last number of years have had approximately five shluchim per year. This year there are six.

In the community

Yeshivah scores top VCE results for a non-selective boys only school.

The Yeshivah College is part of a larger network of facilities of the Yeshivah Centre, which include a youth movement, Jewish studies classes, day camps, and many other initiatives for Melbourne's wider Jewish community.

The Melbourne Lubavitch community is part of a larger Haredi community based in Melbourne.

Controversies

The college received criticism for its handling of reported child abuse in the 1990s,[2] it has also been lauded for its efforts to reach out to victims and for the strength of its child protection policies at the present. In 2015 Yeshivah established a groundbreaking redress scheme for victims[3] years before any other Jewish school and predating the National Redress Scheme.[4]

The college was investigated by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, for alleged abuses that occurred during the tenure of Rabbi Avrohom Glick, where Glick served as Principal in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2015 Glick resigned from all posts at Yeshivah College. He also tendered his resignation from the spiritual committee of the Yeshivah Centre.[5]

Notable alumni

See also

References
  1. "Yeshivah College". School Choice Victoria. Retrieved 7 September 2007.
  2. Lee, Jane (2 February 2015). "Yeshivah Melbourne tried to 'cure' serial sex offender". The Age. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  3. "Melbourne Jewish Centre offers sexual abuse victims financial redress". ABC News. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  4. Desiatnik, Shane (16 March 2018). "Most schools wait to join". Australian Jewish News. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  5. "Sydney Chabad rabbi dismissed as emissary over child sex abuse scandal". Haaretz. JTA. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
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