YESHIVATH ADATH B'NAI ISRAEL - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

YESHIVATH ADATH B'NAI ISRAEL (YABI) is an Orthodox Jewish afternoon school for grades K-12. It was established in 1915 because its founders charged that the existing Talmud Torah was not providing a Jewish education to its pupils. Congregation Shomre Shabbos agreed to let the school use its synagogue at E. 37th St. and Woodland as the first school site. YABI incorporated in 1917 and clearly indicated that its mission was to provide a religious education "according to the rules, regulations, and customs of the Jewish faith." The language of instruction was Yiddish, unlike that of the Talmud Torah, which was Hebrew. YABI changed to Hebrew in the 1940s. By the mid-1920s, YABI boasted over 600 students at 3 branches in the Woodland, Kinsman, and GLENVILLE neighborhoods. Funds for the school were raised in the traditional immigrant fashion of door-to-door solicitation, a practice that continued until ca. 1950. In 1936 YABI received its first Jewish Welfare Fund subsidy; 10 years later YABI became affiliated with the Bureau of Jewish Education. During the 1940s, YABI's fortunes began to decline as a result of demographic changes in the community, but also because Congregation Neveh Zedek and the TELSHE YESHIVA established high schools. However, during the late 1940s and 1950s YABI merged with the high schools of OHEB ZEDEK, the KINSMAN JEWISH CENTER, the Marmarosher Jewish Ctr., the HEIGHTS JEWISH CENTER, and the Telshe Yeshiva school. In 1993 YABI was located at 2308 Warrensville Ctr. Rd. and included an Orthodox congregation, daycare center, and various programs for children and adults in Jewish education.

Yeshivath Adath B'nai Israel Records, WRHS.

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