Sunderland Talmudical College
The Sunderland Talmudical College (Hebrew: ישיבת שארית הפליטה נצח ישראל), popularly known as Sunderland Yeshiva, was founded in the city of Sunderland in the United Kingdom during the 1940s. It re-located to Gateshead in June 1988, albeit keeping its original name. In its early years it catered for students from North Africa. The student body currently (2015) numbers over 100. Students are mainly English; however, there are also students from France, Switzerland and Belgium.
Faculty
The first rosh yeshiva was Rabbi Zev Waltner. he was succeeded by Rabbi Shammai Zahn, with whom the yeshiva is most closely identified known as av hayeshive. The other rosh yeshiva Rabbi Zechariah Gelley, now of Washington Heights, worked closely with Rabbi Zahn in opening an ashkenazi wing in the yeshiva. The current rosh yeshiva is rabbi Yankel Ehrentreu, and the head of kibutz is the known lamden Rabbi Avrohom Ehrentreu. The other members of faculty are R' David Zahn, R' Avrohom Chaim Zahn, R' Yaackov Abenson, R' Shmuel Wolf, R' Moshe Salamon, R' Yechezkel Ehrentreu, R' Shlomo klyne and R' Yackov Cohen. More recently the yeshiva added R' Chaim Roberts (formerly of Gateshead Kollel) to its staff.
The Kibutz
The Kibutz is a more recent addition to the yeshiva -being only 19 years old. It is world renowned as being a collection of elite and erudite students. In order to be able to join one must be of a very high academic standard and also be serious about ones religious observance. The head of the Kibutz, Rabbi Avrohom Ehrentrau is a world renowned lamdan and a torah scholar of repute. He is known for his extremely deep and analytical thinking with his own unique twist. In addition, he is an extremely G-d fearing Jew and is a disciple of Rabbi Chatzkel Levenstein. The kibutz also offers a great deal to the main yeshiva. As a group of older students (generally 18-21) who are of a very high academic level as well as being G-d fearing, they are a fantastic example to the younger students and a great source of advice This is in addition to the daily one-to-one learning session the younger students have with students of the kibutz.
Current location
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear in North-East England on the south side of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.