The Samaria Regional Council announced that three new yeshivas will open in the new communities of northern Samaria this coming Elul, as part of the development of 18 new settlements in the area. The schools will open in Emeq Dotan, Ganim and Eival, and council head Yossi Dagan called the move a major value-based milestone for Israel.
The yeshiva on Mount Eival is scheduled to open on the first day of Elul as a branch of Yeshivat Alon Moreh, led by Rabbi Eliezer Alikim Lebanon. Rabbi Aviad Shinuel, formerly head of the pre-military academy in Keshet in the Golan Heights, will head the new institution. On Wednesday morning, Lebanon, Shinuel, Dagan, Eliyashaf Parshan, director general of the Alon Moreh yeshiva network, and students visited Mount Eival for a first planning tour and a day of study at the site.
The council said the Mount Eival yeshiva will be built near Joshua Bin Nun’s altar and will form part of a broader effort to strengthen settlement in northern Samaria. Families are also expected to move into the renewed community of Eival later on. The yeshiva in Ganim will be a higher yeshiva led by Rabbi Neria Bulak, as a branch of Yeshivat Bnei David in Eli, headed by Rabbis Eli Sadan and Yigal Levinstein. The yeshiva in Emeq Dotan will operate as a branch of the yeshiva and pre-army institutions run by Rabbi Chaim Baruch, which currently work in Lod, Bruchin and Tiberias.
Lebanon said the Mount Eival project reflects the connection between Torah and the Land of Israel, adding, “After Evyatar, it is Mount Eival’s turn.” Shinuel said he was taking on the mission with “deep sense of purpose and great humility,” calling it a rare opportunity to build a yeshiva in a site of historical and national importance. Dagan said the three openings are part of rebuilding settlement in northern Samaria, describing them as “an immense value-based message to the State of Israel.”
