Kollel

Originally, the word was used in the sense of "community". Each group of European Jews settling in Israel established their own community with their own support system. Each community was referred to as the "kollel of [place-name]" to identify the specific community of the Old Yishuv. The overwhelming majority of these Jews were scholars who left their homelands to devote themselves to study Torah and serve God for the rest of their lives. The kollel was the umbrella organization for all their needs.

The first examples were Kolel Perushim (students of the Vilna Gaon who established the first Ashkenazi Jewish settlement in Jerusalem) and Colel Chabad for the Russian Hasidim. The Polish Jews were divided into many kollelim: Kolel Polen (Poland), headed by Rabbi Chaim Elozor Wax; Kolel Vilna Zamość was under different leadership; and the Galicians were incorporated under Kolel Chibas Yerushalayim. The last initially included the entire Austro-Hungarian Kingdom, but as each subparty looking for more courteous distribution, the Hungarians separated into Kolel Shomrei HaChomos.

The first kollel – in the modern sense of the term – in the Jewish diaspora was the Kovno Kollel ("Kolel Perushim"[3]) founded in Kovno (Kaunas, Lithuania) in 1877.[4][5] It was founded by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter[6] and directed by Rabbi Isaac Blaser. The ten students enrolled were required to separate from their families, except for the Sabbath, and devote themselves to studying for the Rabbinate. There was a four-year limit on one's membership in the kollel.

Two people can be considered to have spearheaded[7][8] the kollel philosophy and outgrowth in today's world: Rabbi Aharon Kotler (founder of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey, the largest yeshiva in the US) and Rabbi Elazar Shach, one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community in Israel until his death in 2001. The community kollel movement was also fostered by Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools.[9][10]

Currently, the term is applied in America to any stipend given for yeshiva study and is now a general term for the yeshivah approach to life.[5]

Most kollels have a scholar serving as a rosh kollel, or head of the kollel.[14][15] He decides on the subject matter studied by the kollel. In many cases he also has to spend considerable time fund-raising to support the kollel.

Many kollels employ former students – avrechim (אברכים), sg. avrech (אברך) – as fundraisers, often giving them euphemistic titles such as Executive Director or Director of Community Programming. Fundraising projects may include sponsorships of specific events or "day(s) of learning." Many kollels are savvy users of social media for fundraising purposes.

Many Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students study in kollel for a year or two after they get married, whether or not they will pursue a rabbinic career.[16] Modest stipends, or the salaries of their working wives, and the increased wealth of many families have made kollel study commonplace for yeshiva graduates. The largest United States kollel is at Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. More than 4,500 kollel scholars are attached to the yeshiva, which has 6500 students in total. Large kollels also exist in Ner Israel Rabbinical College, numbering 180 scholars, and in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, with more than 100 scholars. In the Israeli Haredi Jewish community, thousands of men study full-time for many years in hundreds of kollelim.

Kollel has been known at times to cause a great deal of friction with the secular Israeli public at large. It has been criticized by the Modern Orthodox, non-Orthodox, and secular Jewish communities. The Haredi community defends the practice of kollel on the grounds that Judaism must cultivate Torah scholarship in the same way that the secular academic world conducts research into subject areas. While costs may be high in the short run, in the long run the Jewish people will benefit from having numerous learned laymen, scholars, and rabbis. (See also: Religious relations in Israel)

Yeshiva students who learn in kollel often continue their studies and become rabbis,[17][18] poskim ("deciders" of Jewish law), or teachers of Talmud and Judaism. Others enter the world of business. If successful, they may financially support the study of others while making time to continue their own learning.