Yeshiva Darchei Torah Moves into New Complex in Far Rockaway

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darchei-torah [Photos below.] The dream has become reality. This past Monday, Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway moved into its new complex on Caffrey Avenue, comprised of four buildings – the homes of the yeshiva‘s preschool, elementary school, junior high school, Rabenstein Learning Center and administrative offices. The complex was built in response to the yeshiva‘s extraordinary, sustained annual increase in student enrollment, a reflection of the growth of the Far Rockaway/Five Towns Torah communities.

The original one-story building that housed the yeshiva for many years has been replaced by a complex of four separate buildings joined together and measuring in at 183,000 square feet.

Each building contains a twelve-foot basement. Collectively, these lower level spaces house the yeshiva‘s milchige and fleshige kitchens, a 7,000-square-foot dining hall, computer and science labs, therapy rooms, and a teacher training center.

At the far right of the complex is the Elly and Brochie Kleinman Building, a two-story edifice, containing twenty classrooms, that serves the yeshiva‘s pre-school. This building also includes the pre-school offices, a spacious indoor gym built specifically for pre-school children to enjoy during the winter months and inclement weather, as well as therapy rooms for occupational therapy and physical therapy. The classrooms include pre-school bathrooms, walk-in closets for coats and boots, and areas for free play. A new outdoor playground has been designed especially for the preschool children to enjoy in warmer weather, funded by the Caroline and Joseph Gruss Life Monument Funds. The pre-school hallways host beautiful aquariums, stocked with colorful saltwater fish, recessed in alcoves to keep the hallways safe and clear for the children. The basement of this building contains two science labs that will be utilized by the entire complex, generously funded and designed by the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE), which has also contributed the curriculum and lesson plans for the labs.

Immediately to the left of the pre-school building is the yeshiva‘s four-story elementary school, housing grades 1-5, twenty-seven classrooms, and the administrative offices of the yeshiva. This building, dedicated by an anonymous donor and holding the main entrance to the yeshiva, is home to the architecturally stunning Yitzchok and Shani Ganger Lobby, where the right hand wall is built of Jerusalem stone and bears plaques of all the major donors to the complex. The Director of Safety and Security monitors the entire campus via video surveillance camera from this lobby. Classrooms, a faculty room, and office areas are located on the second, third, and fourth floors. Principals’ offices are located at the corners of every floor. The basement of this building contains two state-of-the-art computer labs that will be used by all grades.  Like the science labs in the pre-school building, these facilities were generously funded by the CIJE.  A state-of-the-art playground for the elementary school was financed by the Caroline and Joseph Gruss Life Monument Funds.  

The third building of the complex is the Nechemia and Frida Rabenstein Building, a three-story facility with a facade of Jerusalem stone, featuring the Diamond Bais Medrash, built with a twenty-two foot ceiling, high and expansive windows, and a floor span also comprised of Jerusalem stone. The bais medrash in this building and the ezras noshim take up the entire first and second floors. The third floor houses the yeshiva‘s well known and highly successful Rabenstein Learning Center, headed by Mrs. Jill Kay, a world-renowned resource for meeting the needs of children who require assistance for challenges in learning and behavior, and students who require educational enhancement. The basement in this building houses the new dining hall, specifically placed between the elementary school and the junior high school. The dining hall will also service bochurim from the mesivta and the bais medrash programs, and will work four shifts daily to meet the needs of the entire yeshiva.

The junior high school, now called the Motty and Malka Klein Building, is located closest to Mesivta Chaim Shlomo, and services grades six and seven. The yeshiva‘s eighth grade is located in the mesivta, and is now known as the Mechina Division. This fourth building, three stories tall, contains offices for the principals and secretarial staff on each floor. Lockers are recessed, so as not to protrude into the hallways. The Bais Medrash Kotton, located on the first floor, serves as a smaller area for tefillah and contains its own aron kodesh.  This building contains the complex’s state-of-the-art milchige and fleishige kitchens.

The yeshiva boasts sixteen-hundred talmidim, twelve hundred of whom will be serviced by the new complex. In addition to building a new parking lot to keep vehicular traffic away from pedestrian traffic, the grounds now include one large central playing field, three basketball courts, and a hockey court.

See below for photos of the yeshiva moving into the complex on Monday:


{Kalman E. Gross-Matzav.com}


8 COMMENTS

  1. I am so impressed to see someone donating a building ananymously. No one gives tzeddakah anymore leshma. Some people need to have their named plastered wherever possible. It’s a pleasant surprise. May this anonymous person be gebenched with brocha, and mazal!

  2. #2, the mechaber or ramoh in Shulchan oruch says having a name on a building is a good and positive thing, as is giving anonymously. This persons great great act of kindness doesn’t require us to mitigate other people’s great acts of kindness

  3. wow! b”h. i remember like yesterday (23 years ago) the year i started nursary on the previous campus. All Darchie had was rented space from the Hartmen Y. Being in Darchie eleven years I have seen it grow and grow expanding more and more! MAZEL TOV!!!!!!!!!

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