Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary

[3] Bernard L. Levinthal and other leading Orthodox rabbis of the day founded the school,[2] calling it the Rabbinical College of America (not related to the current institution of that name).

Despite the separation, the identities have continued to be blended[citation needed] Both the religious seminary and the college undergraduate Talmudic department are called RIETS, and have the same faculty and students.

Menachem Penner became the dean of RIETS in 2013 after Yona Reiss resigned to take the position as head of the Chicago Rabbinical Council.

In 2023, Rabbi Penner left his position as dean in order to assume the role of executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America.

There are a variety of required ancillary courses, such as homiletics, pastoral counseling, and Jewish philosophy, that are intended to train students for careers as practicing rabbis.

Many RIETS students are also concurrently enrolled in a variety of other graduate degree-granting programs in law, education, academic Jewish studies, psychology, and the sciences.

RIETS has two post-semikhah kollelim (referred to as the Kollel Elyon) which offer students the opportunity to study Torah at an advanced level and take supplemental courses for an additional 3 to 4 years while receiving a stipend.

[13] Later roshei yeshiva include: Hershel Schachter, Eliyahu Ben Haim, Mordechai Willig, Michael Rosensweig, Mayer Twersky, Jeremy Wieder, Yaakov Neuburger, Baruch Simon, Zvi Sobolofsky, David Hirsch, J. David Bleich, and Daniel Stein, Hershel Reichman and Ezra Schwartz.