Yeshiva Gedola of Carteret - History

History

The yeshiva was founded in 2006 by Rabbis Azriel Brown and Yaakov Mayer, both graduates of Yeshiva of Far Rockaway and Ner Israel Rabbinical College of Baltimore. With the backing of Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, and Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, among others, Rabbis Brown and Mayer decided to open a yeshiva in the suburban north Jersey town of Carteret, which had had a Jewish community with two synagogues in the 1950s but whose Jewish presence had dwindled to the point that it was no longer able to support the remaining synagogue, a Jewish Community Center, which closed in 2002. A board member of the Jewish Community Center who desired to preserve Jewish life in Carteret arranged to transfer the former synagogue building and an adjoining five-bedroom rabbi's residence to the yeshiva.

The yeshiva opened with 14 students. Initially, Brown's wife Donya and Mayer's wife Chani handled the food preparation and bookkeeping for the fledgling institution, and each family hosted all the students in their home for one Shabbat meal. As yeshiva enrollment grew and the students stayed in the yeshiva full-time, the Browns and Mayers took an active role in each student's education, helped them with shidduchim (marriage proposals), and hosted their sheva brachot (festive meals held during the week after the wedding).