Mercaz HaRav

Mercaz HaRav Kook (Hebrew: מרכז הרב קוק‎, lit. "The Rav Kook Center") is a national-religious yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. It has become the most prominent religious-Zionist yeshiva in the world and synonymous with Kook's teachings. Many Religious Zionist educators and leaders have studied at Mercaz HaRav.

Mercaz HaRav was founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, chief Ashkenazi rabbi during the British Mandate. It was housed in Beit HaRav which was built by the noted philanthropist Harry Fischel. It was established to serve as a beacon of Torah learning. Rabbi Avraham Borstein, who headed the yeshiva with him, died two years after taking up his duties. The yeshiva's official name is HaYeshivah HaMercazit HaOlamit - "The Central Universal Yeshiva." It is popularly known as Mercaz HaRav, after Rav Kook.

Rav Kook died in 1935 and his student, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Harlap, succeeded him as Rosh Yeshiva. After his death in 1951, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook took up his father's position. In 1982, after Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook died, Rabbi Avraham Shapira took the position and led the institution until his death in 2007. His son Rabbi Yaakov Shapira is his successor.

Today, the yeshiva has about 500 students, including 200 students in the yeshiva's kollel (post-graduate division).

In its first decades, the yeshiva had few students; 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 Mercaz Harav, the only Zionist yeshiva.

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Wikipedia