When my wife and I first moved to Stamford, Connecticut, as a newly married couple 42 years ago, only a handful of shomer Shabbat families lived in the community. There was no eruv … no kosher restaurants … and very few amenities to support Orthodox living.

When we told our friends that we had moved to Stamford, virtually no one had ever heard of the community. Interestingly, though, the reaction of some folks when we mentioned Stamford back then was, “Oh, isn’t there a yeshiva gedola located there?”

In fact, there was a yeshiva gedola located in Stamford back then—and it certainly has a rich history and was very much a part of the Jewish landscape for several decades.

Bais Binyomin Yeshiva opened its doors in Stamford in the mid-1970s, with 40 yeshiva students and 10 kollel students. Its goal was to become an institution that demanded intensive Talmud study and a comprehensive understanding of Jewish law and philosophy. The yeshiva was known for its rigorous academic program, dedicated faculty and supportive community environment. It aimed to instill strong values and a deep understanding of Jewish texts and traditions in its students, preparing them for various roles within the Jewish community, whether it was teaching, communal leadership or other professional endeavors.

The school was co-founded by two students of Bais Medrash Gavoha in Lakewood, New Jersey: Rav David Mayer and Rabbi Tzvi Pruzansky, who were involved in organizing a kollel in Los Angeles and in Toronto, respectively.

The roshei yeshiva were Rav Simcha Schustal, zt”l, and Rav Moshe Shapiro. While being a giant in Torah and avodah, Rav Schustal possessed unparalleled humility and gentility. Never looking for recognition of any kind, he devoted his life to the learning and teaching of Torah and raising his students to live their lives based on the timeless ideals he espoused.

When the school first opened, the kollel students began teaching a Thursday evening Talmud class to members of the larger Stamford Jewish community. Unlike today, there was very little in terms of adult education being offered by the synagogues in the 1970s—and the fact that the yeshiva offered a Talmud class was a major Jewish education breakthrough. The yeshiva also offered special Yom Tov classes around the time of the holidays, which were also well received by community members.

We moved to the community in 1982, several years after the yeshiva opened, and watched as the yeshiva grew in both the number of students and its impact on the community. Although it was forced to close its kollel in the late 1980s, the high school flourished, as it was considered a very prestigious institution for young men to continue their studies after elementary school.

One of the strong memories I have of the yeshiva is how they reached out to the young boys attending our local day school and offered them a weekly Mishna class on Thursday nights to enhance their learning. Our son participated in this program for several years, and we are grateful to the yeshiva for offering this to him and to other boys in the community. At times there were 50 boys taking advantage of this program.

“The roshei yeshiva always encouraged the students to expand their horizons in welcoming and learning with members of the community, especially the young boys that came every week on Thursday nights,” said Rabbi Shmuely Bender, director of development at Bais Binyomin Yeshiva. “The students at our yeshiva gained tremendously in their middos and ahavas Yisrael. It also helped them to develop fundamental leadership skills in teaching Torah to others, regardless of what level they may be at. Our students all felt proud to be part of this mission!”

Being that the yeshiva only had four families living in Stamford, putting together a minyan on Yom Tov (when the yeshiva boys were home on vacation) was always a struggle. “The community always stepped up and provided us with the few more men we needed to have a minyan,” said Rabbi Bender. “The highlight of the year was when the local rabbis and some community members came to dance with us on Simchat Torah along with our roshei yeshiva.

The Stamford community was always nice to us … welcoming us, offering anything they could to help the yeshiva and the yeshiva families.”

The local non-Jewish residents in Stamford may have thought it odd that a bunch of black-hat yeshiva students were studying Talmud in their town. But they were always generous to the yeshiva. Every Erev Pesach, the yeshiva students would go to the big industrial fire at the City of Stamford incinerator (where they burned the garbage of the entire city) and burned their chometz. The city workers would stop what they were doing and allow the students to throw the chametz into the incinerator. And on Rosh Hashanah, the entire entourage of students walked down as a group to Washington Boulevard to perform tashlich, which was a sight to behold.

Bais Binyomin Yeshiva started with strong financial backing of the Pruzansky family, who generously paid all the bills when the school opened. Unfortunately, a year later, the Pruzansky family suddenly went bankrupt, and the yeshiva lost all its funding, leaving the institution in a precarious financial situation. Fortunately, there were many people who stepped up to save the school from total collapse. In the early 1980s, Larry Rezak and Howard Weiss—two members of the Stamford Jewish community—rallied the community to help save the yeshiva.

Senator Joe Lieberman, who was then attorney general of Connecticut, helped to secure a letter from the state to allow the yeshiva to get federal Pell grants. Other members of the Stamford Jewish community were also extremely helpful to the yeshiva, including Ben Manger, Lawrence Gochberg, Tobias Weiss, Fred Teller, Judy Pomper, Hecky Attar, Alvan Small and Rabbi Tzvi Bernstein (who served as the school’s chairman of the board).

In 1995, there was a fire that damaged the kitchen. The Stamford Fire Department discovered that the yeshiva building had not been upgraded for many decades to follow current fire code regulations, so they forced the yeshiva to close its doors. The Stamford Jewish community, led by Rabbi Tzvi Bernstein, then raised significant sums of money to upgrade the building to bring it up to code and make it compliant (a new fire alarm system, emergency lights, and fire doors). Fortunately, the school was able to reopen a week or two later.

In 2006, the yeshiva hired Rabbi Yehoshua Belsky as its director of community services—and the number of outreach programs increased dramatically. Most memorable to me were the annual Chanukah chagigah programs the yeshiva sponsored, which brought more than 150 people from the community to the school to celebrate the holiday together.

In 2016, the yeshiva made the decision to move the school to Monsey, New York, where it still thrives today. However, the yeshiva has not forgotten about Stamford, and it made sure to secure funding to continue Torah classes in the Stamford community. Rabbi Shragy Reise (sometimes along with others) visits the Young Israel each week to teach a shiur to interested adults, and it is an extremely popular class among younger members of the community.

As the yeshiva gets set to mark its 50th anniversary, we fondly recall the impact it had on the Jewish community of Stamford.

Michael Feldstein, who lives in Stamford, Connecticut, is the author of “Meet Me in the Middle” (meet-me-in-the-middle-book.com), a collection of essays on contemporary Jewish life. He can be reached at [email protected].