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New Yeshiva Opening in Elkins Park
on High School Road
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
L ike many New Yorkers, Rabbi
Yehoshua Rubanowitz felt sur-
rounded by strangers. He felt like
his community was scattered. And he
felt like he could never own anything,
just rent.

Except Rubanowitz was not just any
New York City resident. He was the
rosh yeshiva for the Yeshiva Gedolah
in Washington Heights, a Manhattan
neighborhood. So, if he moved, the 100-
plus student institution would move
with him.

By January of 2021, moving was not
a matter of if, but when and where,
according to the rabbi. He said he
looked at 13 or 14 places in the tri-state
area. But it was not until he got a tip
about one in the Philadelphia suburbs
that he figured out where he was going.

After getting that tip, Rubanowitz
visited the former Congregation Kol
Ami property at 8201 High School Road
in Elkins Park, and he was sold on the
spot. The rabbi loved the quiet, sub-
urban location, the building that was
already zoned for a school and the plot
of land that was big enough to include
a dormitory and was affordable enough
to buy.

Over Labor Day weekend, the Yeshiva
Gedolah received the necessary approv-
als from Cheltenham Township to open
for the 2022-’23 school year, according
to the rabbi. It will open with space
for 108 students and 12 staff members.

Students will live in the yeshiva’s sec-
ond-floor dormitory on the same site as
the school building.

Unlike in New York, they will not be
scattered in different, rented-out apart-
ment units. They will live together on a
property that the yeshiva owns.

“They feel like one group. That’s
the environment they’re used to,”
Rubanowitz said. “They come to the
school as a group.”
Rubanowitz started the school for
18- to 21-year-olds to study Talmud
13 years ago and grew it from eight
students to more than 100. But then
he capped enrollment. He said a rela-
tionship between a rosh yeshiva and a
Talmudic scholar is “forever,” and that
he wanted to be able to devote enough
time and attention to each student.

Rubanowitz describes himself as the
yeshiva’s dean, lecturer, teacher and
rabbi. And to each scholar, he is a men-
tor and leader.

The rosh yeshiva said he discovered
years ago that God granted him the
ability to teach college kids. It is a skill
he has confidence in. It’s also the one he
wishes to focus upon.

His vision, he explained, is what you
will see inside the doors at 8201 High
School Road: students learning in com-
munity with one another.

“The yeshiva is done,” Rubanowitz
said. “Whatever happens in the com-
munity, if it grows it grows.”
But the rabbi chose Elkins Park because
he believed it could offer fertile ground
for his students and their post-yeshiva
pursuits. Rubanowitz estimates that only
about 10% of them, if that, will become
rabbis once they leave the 7.5-acre,
40,000-square-foot property.

Many yeshiva scholars go on to
medical school, law school and other
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The entrance to the new Yeshiva Gedolah at 8201 High School Road in
Elkins Park
professions. One of the rabbi’s former
students works in the management
operations fi eld and helped him fi nd
the company that will provide janito-
rial staff to Yeshiva Gedolah.

A yeshiva aims to root its students in
Torah to develop their moral character.

Th en, they will be more likely to fi nd
success in their chosen professions and
become upstanding members of their
communities. Rubanowitz hopes that, in many cases
for his current scholars, that commu-
nity becomes Elkins Park.

“We all aim to be a beacon of light,”
he said.

Th e community, for its part, seems
happy to have them.

Cheltenham Township’s Board of
Commissioners approved the yeshiva’s
sewage facilities planning module with
a 6-0 vote in August. And then in early
September, over a holiday weekend, it
helped the school gain the fi nal approv-
The Yeshiva Gedolah property in Elkins Park is still under construction.

als it needed to open.

Th e institution’s hired construction
company, Regan Kline Cross Architects,
is still renovating the site. But it is in sta-
ble-enough condition for the students
and staff to move in and start the year.

“Th ey weren’t looking for any zon-
ing change,” said Daniel Norris, the
board president. “Th ey were looking
for minor variances, so it wasn’t a sig-
nifi cant decision as far as the type of
organization.” Norris, who is Jewish and belongs
to the Conservative Beth Sholom
Congregation on Old York Road, also
believes that the Orthodox institution
will add to the community in general.

“We have an Orthodox synagogue
not far away: Young Israel of Elkins
Park,” he said. “And Cheltenham is
a very welcoming community to all
religions.” JE
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Photo by Jarrad Saff ren
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