the future is where?

Declarations that the future for Jews is in Israel is not limited to Mizrachi or Dati Leumi people. In 2017, a yeshivish American Rosh Yeshiva declared at an Agudah convention that the future was in Israel because “the center of limud haTorah and psak halacha” had shifted there. 

Is that even true? Beis Midrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey is likely the largest yeshiva in the world and there are many large yeshivas in the New York area.  

An AI search revealed the following:

The number of yeshivas in New York depends on how they're counted, but here are the estimates from different sources:

• ~450 yeshivas in New York State (as of 2020, per Times of Israel), with approximately 160,000–163,000 students enrolled
• ~120 yeshivas in New York (per ByteScraper business database)
• Brooklyn alone has 62+ yeshivas, representing over half of the state's total

The variation comes from different definitions — some counts include small independent religious schools and Hasidic institutions, while others only track registered or accredited yeshivas. New York has by far the largest concentration of yeshivas in the United States.

The 12th Siyum HaShas was held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on August 1, 2012 (13 Av 5772).

The event drew a sellout crowd of over 90,000–100,000 people, making it one of the largest Jewish gatherings in modern history at that time. The stadium was filled to capacity with Jewish men and women celebrating the completion of the Daf Yomi cycle — the seven-and-a-half-year program of studying one page of Talmud daily.

And that's New York. Add to that many other states and England, Belgium, Canada, France, and Australia.

A precise total count of yeshivas in Israel isn't readily available in the sources I found, but here are the key numbers that are documented:

• 68 Hesder yeshivas (religious Zionist institutions combining Torah study with military service) — as of 2011
• ~170,000 students in ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and kollels as of 2024
• ~50,000 students in Haredi higher yeshivas ("yeshivot gedolot") as of 2021–2022

So it seems there are more in Israel but the Chutz yeshivas are in much better shape. The Israeli yeshivas are broken down and broke. In the Mir, you can't even find a seat. And then there's the mandatory military conscription that they are all fighting. And then there's the religious extremism and oppressiveness that is found in most Israeli yeshivas. 

When Rav Elyashiv was around it may have seemed that psak halacha was in Israel, but that's not the case anymore. When Rav Chaim Kaniefsky was around it may have seemed that the limud haTorah was in Israel, but he's gone too. Nobody replaced either of them.

Besides that, limud haTorah doesn't determine everything. Can you keep the mitzvos in Israel? Can you afford a home? Can you maintain decent middos? Are you safe? Can you get the medical care you need?

What this rosh yeshiva was expressing was Zionistic sentiment and Messianic impluses. He has been influenced by the notion that the state is the beginning of the redemption. He has been fooled by the mid-century expansion of the Israeli population, which has since ceased, much of which happened due to nefarious actions, which I won't describe here. You can look it up. 

Would he have said that the future is in Israel when Cyrus ordered the Second Temple to be rebuilt? How did that work out?

What this so-called yeshivish rabbi did was look into a crystal ball called messianism and imagined that he saw the future. 

His comment is irresponsible. It reflects arrogance too. He knows the future and he can summarize it in a sentence. Meanwhile, he lives where? In New York. If the future were in Israel, wouldn't he bring his children here? That's what I did, fool that I am, after being influenced by fools in positions of authority.