Mission and History

The Yeshiva High School was founded in 1963 by HaRav Gedaliah Anemer ZT”L and community leaders so that families in the Greater Washington area would have a local address for their children to receive a quality yeshiva education with separate divisions for boys and girls.

The founding concept was to create an institution that would provide a high quality Judaic and general studies high school education. Beginning with a class of six students, the lay committee and rabbonim of the community appointed Rabbi Anemer as Rosh HaYeshiva, a position he held for more than forty years until his passing, to guide the institution with Daas Torah and a vision for the greater Washington Jewish community. Within a few years, YHS expanded to a full high school and in 1980 added the junior high school to become the Yeshiva of Greater Washington.

In 1994 our Headmaster Rabbi Yitzchok Merkin together with Rabbi Anemer and the Board of Directors created the Yeshiva Gedolah, recruiting Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky to head the program. Housed on the Boys Campus, the Yeshiva Gedolah adds to the quality of the Boys Division by presenting role models, providing additional learning opportunities as well as tutorial assistance for our students. Many of the students havechosen to stay in the community, marry, and subsequently create a nucleus of young Torah-strong couples that has enriched the fabric of the community. This commitment to advanced Torah learning subsequently led to the founding of the Kollel Zichron Amram. In turn, these developments broadened YGW’s scope to become a vehicle of disseminating Torah and its study throughout the Greater Washington area.

YGW is proud to see hundreds of graduates for whom Torah is their life guide to reach both personal and professional success in all professions such as doctors, scientists, lawyers, social workers, electricians, rebbeim, rabbonim, and kiruv professionals in communities around the world.

On the occasion of our 50th anniversary, YGW was renamed Yeshiva of Greater Washington – Tiferes Gedaliah (YGW), in memory of our founder, HaRav Gedaliah Anemer zt”l. YGW is accredited by the Maryland State Department of Education, a member of Torah U’Mesorah, and a partner agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. The Yeshiva College of the Nation’s Capital, YGW’s college program, is accredited by the Association of Advanced rabbinical and Talmudic Studies (AARTS) and the Maryland Higher Education Commission.