Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen, is a Orthodox yeshiva in the United States, based in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York. It is primarily an American, Lithuanian-style Talmudic yeshiva. The Yeshiva is legally titled Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA), however it is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim, as that was the nickname of its namesake, Yisroel Meir Kagan. The school has affiliate branches in Israel and North America.
The yeshiva was established in 1933 by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz, a great-nephew of the Chofetz Chaim. Rabbi Leibowitz was a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel and he also studied under Rabbi Naftoli Trop and the Chofetz Chaim in the Radin Yeshiva. Both of these yeshivas were in Lithuania. However, for a time Radin was governed by Poland.
The new yeshiva was named for his great uncle Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who had died that year. It is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim (Hebrew: חָפֵץ חַיִּים), as that was the nickname of its namesake, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who was known as the Chofetz Chaim, after the name of his book with the same title. Chofetz Chaim means "Seeker/Desirer [of] Life" in Hebrew. The book concentrates on the Jewish religious laws of proper speech.
The yeshiva's first building was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In December 1955 it relocated to Forest Hills, Queens, and at the start of the 2003 academic year, to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.