Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman Urges Public to Save Historic Rashbi Yeshiva at Age 96

Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, the revered head of the Rashbi Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, has issued an extraordinary appeal to the Torah community amid a fundraising campaign to save the historic institution. The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Shach and named after the holy Tanna Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, has been supported solely by Rabbi Bergman for 53 years. Despite his advanced age and physical challenges, including using a wheelchair, Rabbi Bergman has tirelessly sustained hundreds of students, enabling them to study Torah without financial worry.

Now 96 years old and recently hospitalized, Rabbi Bergman has declared that continuing the yeshiva in its current form is no longer possible without immediate public support. In a rare and heartfelt statement, he promised that anyone who donates "is considered as if they have risked their life year after year," and he vowed to intercede for their salvation at Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s gravesite in Meron through the power of Torah.

Close associates of the campaign describe this as a once-in-a-century opportunity, as Rabbi Bergman, who has never asked for anything for himself, now offers the spiritual merit of his lifetime dedication to Torah study to those who help preserve the yeshiva. The campaign "Mesarti Nafshi" calls on the Torah world to unite in this critical moment to ensure the survival of this historic institution and to merit blessings through the merit of Rabbi Bergman’s decades of devotion and the holy Tanna Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.