Volozhin yeshiva

The Yeshiva of Waloschyn ( Yiddish וואלאזשינער ישיבה, English Volozhin Yeshiva mostly ) was a in 1803 by Chaim ben Isaac Woloszyner in Waloschyn, Belarus, founded today Jewish educational institution ( yeshiva ) for boys and young men to the teaching of traditional religious Jewish texts, especially the Torah and the Talmud devoted. In honor of its founder, it was named after his death Ez Hayyim Yeshiva. Originally founded as a response to the spread of Hasidism, it became the model for the Eastern European yeshivot in the 19th and 20th century and founded the Lithuanian- Jewish scholarship and their reputation.

The yeshiva became fully operational with 10 students, after ten years, she already counted 100 students, which were up to in the 1880s to 400. The students, mostly young people were living separately from their parents, largely cut off from the outside world and were supported financially by the yeshiva. They were taught by scholars exclusively in the Jewish religious traditions, a teaching on secular subjects was not granted and the use of the national language are not allowed.

The yeshiva was closed by the Russian authorities several times, but could each receive their operation again. When the Germans invaded Waloschyn in 1941, the yeshiva was still one of 64 students. Some of them were able to save the forests and joined the partisans and the Red Army, but most were killed by the Germans.