As a teenager Leibowitz studied in the Radin Yeshiva, where he held private study sessions with his great-uncle and founder of the yeshiva—Yisrael Meir Kagan—helping him to write the last volume of his Mishnah Berurah.

In 1908 Leibowitz transferred to the Slabodka yeshiva, where he studied under Nosson Tzvi Finkel.

In January 1927, Leibowitz went to the United States as a fund-raiser for the kollel, and was invited to become the first rosh yeshiva (dean) of Mesivta Torah Vodaath.

In 1933, Leibowitz founded the Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA) in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

The yeshiva was headed for the following sixty-seven years by his only son, Henoch Leibowitz.