A hundred children of Yerushalayim’s Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah, the oldest cheder in Eretz Yisroel, recently celebrated their first Chumashim in the Lemel School building where Eitz Chaim moved after it left its old building on Yafo Street.
This was a victory because the Lemel School was built in 1904 as part of a program to supplant the traditional cheder system represented by Eitz Chaim with a modern school curriculum. Many gedolei Yerushalayim banned Lemel because of that. Now, Lemel was long forgotten and Eitz Chaim celebrated a Chumash celebration on its premises.
At the time of the move, Rav Chaim Kanievsky was asked whether it was a problem for Eitz Chaim to move into the building of the infamous Lemel School. He advised to paint the walls of the building from top to bottom in order to give the place a ponim chadoshos.
David Steger – Matzav.com
