Rabbi Avraham Tanzer Z”tl was the founding Rabbi and spiritual leader since 1963 of the Glenhazel Area Hebrew Congregation and Yeshiva College School along with his wife, Rebbetzin Marcia Tanzer.  

Rabbi Tanzer was born in Brooklyn New York, USA in October 1935. He was educated at the Yeshiva Torah Ve d’as in New York, and at the Telsher Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio. After he received smicha, he continued as a fellow at the Post Graduate Institute Kollel Yad Eliyahu Meir, and was also a graduate at the Kaufman Teaching Institute in Cleveland.

In 1963 an invitation was extended to Rabbi Tanzer to become the associate Rosh Yeshiva to Rabbi Kossowsky Z”tl. After Rabbi Kossowsky Z”tl passing in 1966, Rabbi Tanzer was appointed as the Rosh Yeshiva.

Rabbi Avraham and Rebetzin Marcia Tanzer have had an immeasurable impact on the establishment and strengthening of Torah education and a Torah observant community in South Africa. Under his 54 years at the helm of Yeshiva College, the school grew from a small religious boys’ high school consisting of 13 boys, into a dynamic school of 960 students, providing a comprehensive education from nursery school to matric, and including a girls’ high school. The school was founded as a Bnei Akiva Mizrachi School.

Rabbi and Mrs Tanzer were instrumental in establishing and building the Glenhazel Area Hebrew Congregation, a shul community consisting of 750 families, with 7 minyanim on campus, and including a kollel, mikveh and eruv. Rabbi and Rebbetzin Tanzer oversaw the integration of the school and shul into a single campus, initially unique in South Africa if not the Jewish world at large. 

Rabbi Doron Perez is the Chief Executive of the Mizrachi World Movement, a position he has held since he returned to Israel in 2014 from Johannesburg, South Africa. Rabbi Perez is an alumnus of Yeshiva College and was previously the Executive Director of Mizrachi South Africa, the Senior Rabbi of the Mizrachi Shul, and Head of the Yeshiva College school.

Mizrachi is the global Religious Zionist movement based in Jerusalem, spreading Torat Eretz Yisrael across the world and strengthening the bond between the international Jewish community and the State of Israel. It inspires people with a sense of commitment to the Torah, the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. Based in Jerusalem and with branches across the globe, Mizrachi – an acronym for merkaz ruchani (spiritual center) – was founded in 1902 by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines

Combined, Yeshiva Mizrachi has helped build the Yeshiva College Campus into the central engine of religious Zionism within the South African community. Through the current Rabbinical leadership of Rabbi Jonny and Natalie Altman and Rabbi Alon and Dani Friedman a religious, dati leumi environment has been created with Israel and the Torah being the main focus.

Our newly appointed Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Nechemya Taylor and his wife Rebbetzin Avigail, will assume leadership on values of Talmud Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Am Yisrael. They share a deep passion and commitment to the South African Jewish Community and were close friends and colleagues of the late Rabbi Avraham Z”tl and Marcia Tanzer. Rabbi Taylor and Rebbetzin Avigail, spent time in South Africa as Shlichim in the late 80’s and will please G-d be returning to our shores this year.

We welcome the new Rosh Yeshiva and Avigail together with our other core stakeholders; Yeshiva College Schools, Yeshiva Mizrachi Community, Mizrachi SA, Beit Mordechai Kollel, The Midrasha, Emunah, and Bnei Akiva.

We look forward to continuing building on the legacy of Rabbi Tanzer Z”tl and Rebbetzin Tanzer in this new chapter.