Yeshiva Shavei Hevron is situated at The Romano House in the heart of the old city of Hevron.
Beit Romano was built in 1876 by Avraham Romano, a rich merchant from Turkey. The building was used as a Torah Center from the time of Rav Haim Chezkiyah Medini ztzl, (known as the Sdei Hemed), who lived in the building and also established a Yeshiva on its premises.
Later, the Romano House was purchased by the Admor Rav Shalom Ber Schneerson of Lubavitch, who established the first important Chabad Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, Torath Emeth, on the site.
During the 1929 Arab Uprisings, Romano House was used as the British Police Headquarters. The survivors of the massacre were congregated in the building prior to their expulsion from the City of Our Forefathers.
During the time of the Jordanian occupation, the building was used as a school.
In 1981, after David Kapulsky was stabbed near Romano House, the Arab school was evacuated from it.
The Establishment of the Yeshiva
The Jewish settlement in Hevron began its renewal in 1967, when a group headed by Rav Moshe Levinger returned to the government building held by the Israeli government near Hevron. This was the first step towards the establishment of Kiryat Arba.
On the eve of Rosh Chodesh Iyar in 1979, a group of women headed by Rabbanit Miriam Levinger entered the Beit Haddassah building in the heart of Hevron, in the middle of the night. This event marks the renewal of Jewish settlement in Hevron. After the murder of six boys on Shabbat Parshat Emor in 1980 at the gate of Beit Haddassah, the desire to establish a Yeshiva in the City of Our Forefathers arose.
Rav Avinoam Horowitz, who was then a Yeshiva student, managed to organize a group of students from Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem who were willing to come to learn in Hevron in order to establish Yeshiva Shavei Hevron.
The Sons Return To Their Borders
In 1982, ten boys entered the Romano House in order to begin studying under Rav Moshe Bleicher, shlita. Among this small group of students, was Asher Aharon Gross, who was murdered at the end of the year by Arab terrorists in Hevron.
Students and visitors heard Rav Bleicher express his vision that hundreds of students would learn in the Beit Midrash in the City of Our Forefathers, even during the first difficult years of the Yeshivas establishment.
From Then and Foever
Today, over thirty years later, the Yeshiva has developed and new floors have been added to the original structure of The Romano House. On Sukkot, 2015 a new dormitory building, built adjacent to the Romano House, was dedicated. Presently, Yeshiva Shavei Hevron has a student body of about 300 students, of whom, 80 are married students (avrechim). The Yeshiva has established other institutions that have hundreds of students and contribute greatly to Kirat Arba and Hevron. Hundreds of students will come to learn at these institutions in the future.