Yeshiva of Far Rockaway

Yeshiva of Far Rockaway (also known as Yeshiva Derech Ayson (Hebrew: יְשִׁיבָה דֶרֶךְ אֵיתָן‎) and Derech Ayson Rabbinical Seminary) is a Haredi yeshiva located on 802 Hicksville Road, Far Rockaway, Queens in New York City. It comprises a high school and beis medrash, or seminary. The school was founded by the current rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Yechiel Yitzchok Perr, and by the late Rabbi Nachman Bulman. It is reputed for its intensive Talmudic studies, and for the rosh yeshiva's musar lectures in the Novardok tradition.

History

Rabbi Perr, an alumnus of Yeshiva Beis Yosef-Novardok in Brooklyn, Beth Medrash Govoha, the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, and Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, founded the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway in 1969. The name of the yeshiva, Derech Ayson, comes from the sefer by Rabbi Avraham Yoffen of Novardok.^[1]

Zoning suit

On May 25, 1973, the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway—then located on Virginia Street—was sued by Stanley A. Ginsberg for violating the residential covenant of the neighborhood by establishing its yeshiva building on a non-commercial block in 1971. Dr. Ginsberg himself operated a medical office at his home on the same block. The Supreme Court of Queens County ruled in favor of the plaintiff, noting that the medical use was only incidental.^[2] The case was taken to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which ruled on July 8, 1974 to uphold the verdict for the plaintiff.^[3] The New York Court of Appeals heard one more appeal on 15 January 1975, and a decision was made on February 27, 1975 against the yeshiva.^[4]

Notable alumni

• Rabbis Azriel Brown and Yaakov Mayer, founders and roshei yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedola of Carteret
• Ari Goldwag, Jewish recording artist, songwriter, and producer
• Rabbi Akevy Greenblatt, principal of Ohr Chadash Academy of Baltimore^[5]
• Rabbi Avi Rosner, rebbi at Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim^[6]

References