First founded in New York in 1886 as a small Talmudical school named Yeshiva Etz Chaim. Ten years later, another Yeshiva was founded and named after the great Lithuanian rabbi, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spector. In 1915, the two institutions merged, under the head of a leading scholar, Bernard Revel. Recognizing the need for combined religious and secular training, the Yeshiva opened the Talmudical Academy, the first academic high school under Jewish auspices in the U.S. In 1921, a Teachers’ Institute, originally founded in 1917 by the Mizrachi Organization of America, was added to the Yeshiva. The Teachers’ Institute has provided hundreds of principals and teachers for Hebrew schools throughout the country. Yeshiva University’s rabbinical graduates are organized in the Rabbinical Council of America.

In 1928, the first college of liberal arts and sciences in America under Jewish auspices, Yeshiva College, opened its doors. Under the name “Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Yeshiva College,” the expanding institution moved the following year to the present Main Center, Amsterdam Avenue and 186th Street, in New York’s Washington Heights. From 1977 to 2003, it was headed by Dr. Norman Lamm. In 1945, the institution attained university status. In 2003, Richard M. Joel became president.

In addition to its rabbinical seminary, Yeshiva University has a total of 18 schools and divisions, including four high schools (for boys and girls), Stern College for Women, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Ferkauf Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Belfer Graduate School of Science. In addition, the University maintained 24 special programs and services, among them the Community Service Division, Israel Rogosin Center for Ethics and Human Values, Information Retrieval Center on the Disadvantaged, Inservice Institute in Science and Mathematics for Secondary School Teachers, and Albert Einstein College Hospital.