Etz Chaim Yeshiva (Manhattan) was founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.[1] It was founded as a cheder-style elementary school [2] and merged with the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1915 to form the Rabbinical College of America, upon which the elementary grades of Etz Chaim were discontinued, leaving only the high school, the predecessor of today's Masha Stern Talmudical Academy. The Rabbinical College of America developed into Yeshiva College and later Yeshiva University.
On September 15, 1886 the Chebra Machsika Ishiwas Eitz Chaim was incorporated in the City of New York by a group a laymen and Rabbis. Purpose of the school, as described in the certificate of incorporation, was to instruct Jewish boys in the "Sacred Scriptures, the Talmud, and the Hebrew Language and Literature" as well as providing instruction in "reading, writing, and speaking the English Language."[3]
The founding board was composed of the following people: Julius D. Bernstein (President), Morris Bernstein (First Vice President), Moses Heller (Second Vice President), Falk Berman (Treasurer), Louis Shapiro (Secretary), Elias Ratkowsky (First Trustee), Louis Siegelstein (Second Trustee), Rachmiel Witman (Third Trustee), Baruch P. Liberman (Fourth Trustee).