Gateshead Talmudical College

The yeshiva was founded in Gateshead in 1929 by Reb Dovid Dryan, with the Chofetz Chaim serving as an active patron and appointing the original head of the yeshiva. The first rosh yeshiva and menahel (principal) were respectively Rabbi Nachman Landinski and Rabbi Eliezer Kahan, both alumni of the Novardok yeshiva network and both of whom had escaped Communist Russia's religious persecution by escaping across the border from Russia to Poland. Originally, Rabbi Avraham Sacharov was designated as the first rosh yeshiva, but Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz asked William Joynson Hicks, the Home Secretary, to block Sacharov's immigration in an attempt to prevent the establishment of a yeshiva outside…

When Rabbi Landinski arrived in Gateshead he began to teach in the 'Blechenner Shul', a tin shed synagogue, which in 1939 was replaced with the current Gateshead community synagogue. The original building procured by the yeshiva was at 179 Bewick Road. As the yeshiva expanded it acquired neighbouring properties in Rectory Road and at 177 Bewick Road. In 1961 a new building was erected at 88 Windermere Street to house a new beth hamedresh (the hall used for study and prayer), with the dining room on the floor below and the kitchens in the basement. The old beth hamedresh building at 179 Bewick Road and neighbouring houses in Rectory Road were demolished to make way for a new two-storey…