Sha‘are Torah Technical School

Sha‘are Torah (Hebrew, “Gates of Torah”) was a public Talmud Torah school in Jaffa that opened in 1890. The school was established by Naphtali Herts ha-Levi Weidenbaum (1852–1902), Jaffa’s first Ashkenazi rabbi. The local businessmen and Zionist activists Yitsḥak Ayzik Ben-Tovim and Zeraḥ Barnett sponsored the school. Pupils learned to read and write by studying sacred texts; there were very few general subjects in the curriculum. When Rav Abraham Isaac Kook arrived in Jaffa in 1904, he took over management of the school. With his help, in 1906 a workshop was opened in the school where pupils could learn crafts, and in 1908 a yeshiva began operating on the top floor. The school building later became the religious and public center of Jewish communal life in Jaffa. During World War I, Sha‘are Torah partially moved to Rehovot. It has since ceased operation.