Yehuda Geberer: What's the History of the American Yeshiva World? [American Yeshiva World 3/3]

18Forty Podcast

18Forty

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 705 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 113 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This month of learning is sponsored by our dear friends Matt and Mollie Landes of Riverdale for the neshama of Dovid Yehonatan ben Yitzchak Yehuda.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak with Yehuda Geberer—a researcher, educator, and tour guide—about the history of the yeshiva world.

In this episode we discuss:

How did we get from the start of the Lithuanian yeshiva movement to the American yeshiva world of today?
What were the premodern precursors to yeshivas?
What effect did the Vietnam War have on the development of the American yeshiva world?

Tune in for a conversation about “change in service of perpetuating the eternal.”

Interview begins at 22:43.

Yehuda Geberer is a Jewish history researcher, educator, and licensed tour guide who leads heritage tours in Europe and Israel focused on the modern Jewish story. He guides at Yad Vashem, where he also interviews Holocaust survivors, lectures internationally, hosts the popular Jewish History Soundbites podcast, and writes the “For the Record” column for Mishpacha Magazine. A former Mir Yeshiva student with a business degree from Ono Academic College, he is currently studying Jewish history at Hebrew University and lives in Beit Shemesh with his family.

References:

Jew Vs Jew: The Struggle For The Soul Of American Jewry by Samuel G. Freedman

The Jewish Self by Jeremy Kagan

Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century: Creating a Tradition of Learning by Shaul Stampfer

Making of a Godol by Nathan Kamenetsky

Psalms 89

Jewish History Soundbites

The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas by Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky

The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry by William B. Helmreich

Bava Batra 21a

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This month of learning is sponsored by our dear friend, Matt and Molly Landies of Riverdale.
0:06.6	Le'Iloin Nishmas, David Jehounisan, Ben Yitzhak Yehuda.
0:10.6	Thank you so much for your friendship and support. Hi friends and welcome to the 1840 podcast where each month we explore different topic balancing modern sensibilities with traditional sensitivities to give you new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas.
0:41.3	I'm your host, David Bischofkin, and this month we're exploring the American Yeshiva world.
0:46.3	This podcast is part of a larger exploration of those big, juicy, Jewish ideas.
0:52.3	So be sure to check out 1840.org. That's 1-8-F-O-R-T-Y.org
0:57.3	where you can also find videos, articles, recommended readings, and weekly emails.
1:02.4	I think one of my favorite books that I have ever read genuinely in my entire life,
1:08.2	like, what are the books that have really shaped my Jewish identity, the way I
1:13.4	look at the world? So there are a few of them. I think Samuel Friedman, a previous guest on 1840,
1:19.4	and his book Jew verse Jew, which came out just a little more than 25 years ago, kind of talks
1:24.4	about some of the contemporary conflicts. If it's not a book that you have ever
1:28.6	read, I would really urge you to get a copy of it. It's called Jew versus Jew, the struggle for the
1:34.6	soul of American Jewry. It is an absolutely crucial book. It's not the type of book that you'll
1:40.8	agree or disagree with, because he really, I think, does an excellent job of
1:44.2	presenting both sides of these very, very contentious episodes and why they kind of animated the larger
1:51.4	American Jewish community. That is one book. There's another book. We also had him on briefly,
1:56.9	though. I'd love to have him on again. The Jewish Self by Rabbi Jeremy Kagan, absolutely just transformative book. I think the best presentation of contemporary theology, but not in a heavy academic, philosophical way, in a way that's really talking to you, the reader, and it's based on the writings
2:18.0	of Ravt Salduk and the Ramchal. It's just extraordinary. He's written other books that have gone on
2:22.8	to win awards. I fell in love with this because I read it when I was studying in Yeshiva near
2:27.6	Yisrael in Baltimore. And again, that is the Jewish self by Jeremy Kagan. There is a third book
2:33.8	that really I want to discuss today because it relates so directly to the topic that we are exploring,
	...

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