In 1945, the legendary builder of Torah in America Horav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l founded Bais Medrosh Elyon, together with the great gadol, Horav Reuven Grozovskh zt"l, in what was then forests and empty farmland. Now that the Torah centers of prewar Europe were tragically annihilated, he wanted an undisturbed out of town learning environment.
The Monsey community first began to grow in 1950, when the first baalei batim came here from Brooklyn with the intent on living in close proximity of such a great citadel of Torah. A few homes were constructed, and they commuted to their jobs in NYC. For a number of years, Bais Medrosh Elyon continued to be the only minyan in Monsey.
The current Skverer Rebbe Shlita said that his father, the late Skverer Rebbe zt”l, who came here in 1957 from Williamsburg and founded the shtetl of New Square, did so only because it was in close proximity to Bais Medrosh Elyon, which by then was a solid yeshiva surrounded by a close knit community of the yeshiva families. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe zt"l founded the local Vizhnitz community right here for the same reason.
Subsequently, the yeshiva gradually attracted baalei batim, and they began a baalei batim minyan in a shiur room in Bais Medrosh Elyon, and later they opened up the Bais Yisroel Shul across the street. The Monsey community grew alongside Bais Medrosh Elyon with the numbers rapidly growing, evolving into the thriving Torah metropolis of Monsey that we know today.
To this day, the yeshiva remains a thriving citadel of Torah with seventy yungerleit, a center of geshmake learning and hartzige tefilos for its surrounding neighborhoods.
