Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century – Creating a Tradition of Learning

The Jewish world of eastern Europe responded to the challenges of modernity in the nineteenth century by changing the system for educating young men so as to better transmit the talmudie underpinnings of the traditional Jewish way of life. The yeshivas established at that time in Lithuania became models for an educational system that has persisted to this day. To understand how that system works, one needs to go back to the institutions that are patterned on: why were they established, how were they organised, and how they operatred.