Pressburg Yeshiva (Austria-Hungary)

The Pressburg Yeshiva, was the largest and most influential Yeshiva in Central Europe in the 19th century. It was founded in the city of Pressburg, Austrian Empire (today Bratislava, Slovakia) by Rabbi Moshe Sofer (known as the Chasam Sofer) and was considered the largest Yeshiva since the time of the Babylonian Talmud.

Some sources document its establishment in 1803 whilst others cite 1806. The Yeshiva was known as The Chassam Sofer Yeshiva, or simply as Pressburg Yeshiva. The Pressburg Yeshiva was run as an autonomous institution, without the intervention of the community.

Unlike Yeshivas in Czarist Russia which were forced to operate clandestinely, the Pressburg Yeshiva was recognized by the Austro-Hungarian Empire whose emperor Franz Joseph I sympathized and respected the Jews and their leader Rabbi Sofer. The Yeshiva was licensed by the Minister of Education of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under the law, the school required the four upper grades to study secular studies. These secular studies were not taught in the yeshiva, but students attended and took exams at another Jewish school in Pressburg run by the orthodox Jewish community. All of the yeshiva's students were exempted from military service; most of the military rabbis who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army were graduates of the Pressburg Yeshiva, and held officers’ ranks.

The Yeshiva was founded at the height of the Age of Enlightenment and surge of the Jewish Haskalah movement. As such, the Chassam Sofer stood at the forefront against any reform to traditional Judaism and trained his many students to maintain strict observance of Torah and Shulchan Aruch.

This yeshiva produced hundreds of future leaders of Austro-Hungarian Jewry who made great influence on the general traditional orthodox and future Charedi Judaism. Notable students of the Chassam Sofer were:

Upon Moses Sofer's death on October 3, 1839, his son, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin (known as the Ksav Sofer) succeeded him as Rosh Yeshiva. Like his father, Rabbi Samuel Binyamin was a man of great Talmudic knowledge and of great character. Even the Emperor Franz Joseph, was impressed by him and recognized the Yeshiva as an official theological college. This status exempted students from military service.

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