ON THE EVE OF the First World War, yeshivas were among the most important institutions of traditional east European Jewish society, and the rashei yeshivah were among its most prominent leaders. Whereas many rabbis born in the early or even the mid-nineteenth century never studied in a yeshiva at all, most rabbis born in the late nineteenth century most certainly had done (at least in mitnagdic circles). The yeshivas of eastern Europe at this time attracted young men from western Europe and even from America, and the trend intensified in the interwar period. With some justification one may say that most of the world's Torah students at this time were to be found in the yeshivas of eastern Europe and particularly of Lithuania. The tremendous efforts made to raise funds for the yeshivas, and the success these efforts enjoyed despite the many competing philanthropic causes in the interwar period, also demonstrate their significance.

As we have seen, however, the role of yeshivas had changed considerably since the Volozhin yeshiva was founded in the early nineteenth century. Whereas Volozhin reflected the values prevailing in Jewish society at that time and prepared its students to enter its elite, by the end of the century the yeshivas increasingly aimed to educate their students away from the values favoured by the Jewish elite, which was now increasingly defined in terms of wealth and integration into non-Jewish society rather than traditional talmudic scholarship. A related development was the rise of the kolel, an institution that provided financial support to young married men who were willing to devote themselves to Torah study. By allowing young men to continue their Torah learning for a few more years after marriage, it also protected them for longer from the dangers of the wider world. One by-product of this extension of study was that by the time a married man left the kolel he would already have a family, which would make it impractical for him to take up secular study even if he were interested.

Another change lay in the perception of the benefits of a yeshiva education.