Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael was a yeshiva located in the Lithuanian town of Slabodka, adjacent to Kovno (Kaunas), now Vilijampolė, a suburb of Kaunas. It was known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas" and was devoted to high-level study of the Talmud. It functioned from the late 19th century until World War II.
From the second half of the 19th century, Kovno became a center of Jewish cultural activity in Lithuania. Prominent there were Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor (the "Kovner Rav"; officiated 1864-96); Abraham Mapu, one of the first modern Hebrew writers; and Israel Isidor Elyashev, the "Ba'al Makhshoves", the first Yiddish literary critic. The yeshivot of Slobodka, in particular the Or HaChaim yeshivah founded by Tzvi Levitan about 1863, attracted students from other countries and were headed by noted scholars. Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, also known as "Der Alter fun Slabodka" (The Elder of Slabodka), introduced Musar ideals there. Headed by the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, the Alter's yeshiva was known as the Slobodka yeshivah from 1881. Subsequently there was opposition among the students to the Musar method, and in 1897 the yeshivah was divided into two. The followers of Musar established the Knesses Yisrael yeshivah, named after Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, while its opponents founded the Knesset Beit Yitzchak yeshivah, named after Rabbi Spektor.
The yeshiva ceased operation during the Holocaust.
A 1924 edict requiring enlistment in the military or supplementary secular studies in the yeshiva led a large number of students in the Slabodka yeshiva to relocate to Palestine. The Alter of Slabodka sent Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski to head this group and establish the yeshiva in Hebron. A branch was also established in Bnei Brak.
Gedaliah Alon, Israeli historian
Pessah Bar-Adon, Israeli archaeologist and writer
Ezriel Carlebach, journalist and editorial writer
David Cohen, rabbi, talmudist, philosopher and kabbalist
Ben-Zion Dinur, Zionist activist, educator, historian and Israeli politician
Tzvi Hirsch Ferber, rabbi in Soho, London
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Mir yeshiva in both Poland and Jerusalem
Tzvi Pesach Frank, halakhic scholar and Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
Lazarus Goldschmidt, writer and translator of the Babylonian Talmud into German
Avraham Grodzinski, mashgiach ruchani, Slabodka yeshiva
Reuven Grozovsky, rosh yeshiva, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yosef Zvi HaLevy, Israeli rabbi and head of the rabbinical court for Tel Aviv-Yafo
Yitzchok Hutner, rosh yeshiva, Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
Meyer Juzint, American Talmudic scholar
Avraham Kalmanowitz, rosh yeshiva, Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York
Yaakov Kamenetsky, rosh yeshiva, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Avraham Elya Kaplan, rosh yeshiva, Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary
Aharon Kotler, rosh yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha
Dovid Leibowitz, rosh yeshiva, Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen
Yehuda Levenberg, chief rabbi and rosh yeshiva in New Haven, CT
Yeruchom Levovitz, mashgiach ruchani, Mir yeshiva (Belarus)
Saul Lieberman, professor of Talmud, Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Avigdor Miller, mashgiach ruchani, Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, and community rabbi
Eliezer Palchinsky, rosh yeshiva, Yeshivas Beis Aryeh, Jerusalem
Shlomo Polachek, Talmudic scholar and one of the earliest rosh yeshivas in America
Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, rosh yeshiva, Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, Baltimore
Yechezkel Sarna, rosh yeshiva, Hebron yeshiva
Elazar Shach, rosh yeshiva, Ponovezh yeshiva
Moshe Shatzkes, Polish-born rabbi and rosh yeshiva, Yeshivas Grodno
Zalman Sorotzkin, Polish-born rabbi
Selig Starr, Talmudic instructor, Hebrew Theological College
Isaac Stollman, rabbi, author and religious Zionist leader
Naftoli Trop, rosh yeshiva, Raduń Yeshiva
Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, rosh yeshiva, Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary
Harry Austryn Wolfson, Harvard University scholar
Nissan Yablonsky, rosh yeshiva, Hebrew Theological College
Moshe Zilberg, Israeli jurist
