Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim (also known as the Rabbinical Seminary of America) is an Orthodox yeshiva in the United States, based in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York. It is primarily an American, Lithuanian-style Talmudic yeshiva. The Yeshiva is legally titled Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA), however it is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim, as that was the sobriquet of its namesake, Yisroel Meir Kagan. The school has affiliate branches in Israel and North America.
History.
The yeshiva was established in 1933 by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz, a great-nephew of the Chofetz Chaim. Rabbi Leibowitz was a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel and he also studied under Rabbi Naftoli Trop and the Chafetz Chaim in the Raduń Yeshiva. Both of these yeshivas were in Lithuania. However, for a time Radin was governed by Poland.
The new yeshiva was named for his great uncle Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who had died that year. Although it's officially named Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen, the yeshiva is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim (), as its namesake, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, was known as the "Chofetz Chaim," after his book with the same title. ("Chofetz Chaim" means "Seeker/Desirer [of] Life" in Hebrew. The book concentrates on the Jewish religious laws of proper speech.)
The yeshiva's first building was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In December 1955 it relocated to Forest Hills, Queens, and at the start of the 2003 academic year, to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.
After its founder's death in December 1941, the yeshiva was headed and developed by his son, Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz. Today, it is led by two of Rabbi Liebowitz's close disciples, Rabbi Dovid Harris and Rabbi Akiva Grunblatt.
RSA houses a boys' yeshiva high school, an undergraduate yeshiva, and a rabbinical school that grants Semicha (ordination). Rabbinical students at the yeshiva often spend a decade or more there, studying a traditional yeshiva curriculum focusing on Talmud, "mussar" ("ethics"), and "halakha" ("Jewish law").
Characteristics.
There are six primary characteristics of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim of Queens that distinguish it from other Yeshivos: