Two New Yeshivas to Open in Northern Samaria

The Samaria Regional Council announced Thursday that two new yeshivas will be established this summer in new communities in northern Samaria, as part of a broader effort to rebuild areas evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement and expand Jewish settlement in the region.

The first yeshiva will open in Ganim as a branch of the Bnei David yeshiva in Eli. It will be led by Rabbi Neria Bulak and operate under the leadership of Rabbi Yehuda Sadan, with guidance from Rabbi Eli Sadan and Rabbi Yigal Levinstein. More than 50 students took part this week in a preparation day ahead of the planned opening on 1 Elul.

The second yeshiva will be established in the new community of Emek Dotan. After government approval, a community is expected to be built there with a yeshiva at its center. The institution will be connected to the pre-military yeshiva network led by Rabbi Chaim Baruch, which already operates in Lod, Bruchin and Tiberias.

The Samaria Regional Council, together with the Amana settlement movement and in cooperation with the Settlement Administration, the Defense Ministry and the Settlement Division, is working to advance multiple new communities in northern Samaria.

According to the council, 18 new communities are planned for the area. They are expected to serve a range of populations, including religious, Haredi and general Israeli communities.

Council officials said the decision to establish Torah institutions in the new communities reflects the view that rebuilding northern Samaria must be rooted in education, values and Torah study.

Rabbi Chaim Baruch called the move “a correction of a historic injustice,” saying his institutions were excited to help establish a new Torah-centered community in northern Samaria.

Rabbi Neria Bulak said the arrival of Bnei David graduates in Ganim would help rebuild a strategic community that protects northern Israel and corrects the mistake of uprooting Jewish communities from the area.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said Israel committed “a terrible sin” 20 years ago by evacuating the northern Samaria communities, and is now beginning to correct that mistake.

“Four communities were uprooted, and we are building 18 new communities here,” Dagan said.

He added that graduates of religious Zionist pre-military yeshivas, many of whom fought on Israel’s battlefronts, are now returning from war and choosing to build their homes in northern Samaria as part of a broader mission of strengthening Zionism, security and Jewish life in the region.