Kletsk. The Kletsk Yeshiva

First of all, the school paid great attention to the study of the Torah. In addition, due attention was paid to the teaching of Jewish ethics and the analysis of various spiritual aspects of life. The "Morality" movement operated within the school. Among the teachers were such prominent rabbis as Aaron Kotler, Chaim Fimstein, Zeisel Miller and Emeezer Kochan. On holidays, the yeshiva opened its doors to guests and like-minded people.

In 1939, Yeshiva Etz Chaim moved to Vilnius, and in 1941, Rav Kotler managed to emigrate to America, where he opened a yeshiva in Lakewood called Beit Midrash Gavoa. Over time, this yeshiva has become one of the largest and most influential in the world, with branches in Jerusalem and Melbourne. After the war, the building of the Kletsky yeshiva was used as a regional cultural center.

Travelers coming to Belarus can see the former yeshiva building with their own eyes. It perfectly preserved the features of the Art Nouveau era, and continued to be used even after its closure. It was built of brick at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The yeshiva building was one-story, rectangular in plan and covered with a gable roof. The main entrance is distinguished by a risalite with an arched opening in the wall. On the facades of the building there are corner blades, simple cornices, and on the windows the architraves of the arched window openings have been preserved. Inside the hall there are two-tiered galleries.

A significant event for the yeshiva took place in 2015. 79 years after the last class, a speech was heard again in the Kletsk yeshiva and a Torah lesson was held. On November 24, 2015, a delegation of ultra-Orthodox Jews from the USA, Israel, Ukraine, Belarus and Mexico arrived in Kletsk. For several of the hundred participants, this trip was especially significant, as they arrived in the homeland of their ancestors, Malkiel and Aaron Kotler.