The story
Founded by Abraham Isaac Kook in 1924.1
Mercaz HaRav was founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the chief Ashkenazi rabbi during the British Mandate for Palestine. It was housed in Beit HaRav, built by the noted American philanthropist Harry Fischel. Rabbi Kook's vision was to create a new yeshiva curriculum, integrating traditional Talmudic studies with Jewish philosophy, Bible, Jewish history, geography, and literature. The last three subjects, however, were never taught there.
In 1925, Rabbi Kook invited the great European scholar Rabbi Avraham Aharon Borstein (1867–1925) to serve as rosh yeshiva. Tragically, Rabbi Borstein died suddenly at age 58, nine months after taking up his duties.
Kook died in 1935, and his student, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, succeeded him as rosh yeshiva. After Charlap's death in 1951, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's son, took up his father's position. In 1982, after Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook died, Rabbi Avraham Shapira took the position and led the institution until his death in 2007. His son Rabbi Yaakov Shapira is his successor.
In its first decades, the yeshiva had few students, and its future was in doubt. However, in the 1950s, graduates of Bnei Akiva religious schools and high-school yeshivas seeking higher religious education entered Mercaz Harav. Bnei Akiva leader Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria, a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, encouraged students to go to Mercaz Harav, then headed by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook.
In 1997, Rabbi Zvi Thau strongly opposed the introduction of an academic framework—plans to integrate a teaching institute—into Mercaz HaRav. As a result of the disagreement, he, together with six senior lecturers and many students, left the yeshiva and established the Har Hamor yeshiva.
In 2008, the yeshiva has about 500 students, including 200 students in the yeshiva's kollel (post-graduate division).
From Wikipedia’s article on Mercaz HaRav, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4